GROUPS of teenagers and young adults have been targeting the Sunshine CBD, robbing and assaulting victims.
Brimbank Embona taskforce head, Detective Sergeant Glenn Schumann, said groups of up to 10 teenagers and young adults had been targeting victims near locations including Sunshine Railway Station and Clarke St last month.
“Groups of males and some females were attacking random victims across a two-week period,” he said.
“They also started assaulting before they started robbing – they seemed to randomly assault people for no reason.”
Det Sgt Schumann said the youths stole items including phones and wallets from male victims, some of whom were hospitalised afterwards.
“They inflicted injuries including cuts, bruises, chipped teeth and some victims needed sutures to the head,” Det Sgt Schumann said.
In response to the crimes, Brimbank police will run a series of short-term operations across the municipality, to “instil a bit of confidence” in the community.
Det Sgt Schumann said police ran the first short-term operation on 19 February.
As reported in Star last week, police arrested two teenagers, as part of the operation, after they attempted to rob and assault a cyclist near the intersection of Hampshire Rd and McDonald Lane.
“Also earlier in the shift members went in pursuit of a theft of a motorcar, the offender was aged 21 and reached high speeds, probably doing around 100km in a 60 zone,” Det Sgt Schumann said.
Det Sgt Schumann said after their successful first outing, police would continue to “periodically” run the short-term operations across the municipality.
“The operations are going to be ongoing to instil a bit of confidence in the public around local shopping centres and streets,” he said.
“We will be targeting areas across Brimbank and if we can do it on short notice we will, so we are the only ones who know about it.
“We launched them in response to a number of robberies and assaults which were occurring in the Sunshine CBD during the first half of February.”
He said the incidents appeared to have stopped since police arrested the two teenagers on 19 February.
Det Sgt Schumann said one of the boys arrested confessed to being involved in another six robberies and assaults in Sunshine.
The operations announcement comes as the latest crime statistics for the area were released last week, revealing a 10.3 per cent increase in crime.
For the more on the crime statistics turn to page 3.
