The Los Angeles Police Department is looking for two men who robbed a group of diners at gunpoint Tuesday in the middle of the busy Fairfax District.
The alleged robbery happened just before 5 p.m. Tuesday as three people were sitting outside of La Creme Cafe on Melrose Avenue.
Surveillance video, provided by co-owner Stoian Genoff, shows two men casually walk up and pull a gun on a man and two women sitting outside the cafe. In a matter of minutes, the men were able to go through the customers’ things grabbing wallets, shopping bags and purses before they escaped.
Genoff said his business has been on Melrose for nine years, but he has seen an escalation in violence in the area over the last six months.
“It’s beyond my imagination. People sitting, dining in broad daylight. It’s not a bad area. It’s Melrose!” he said.
“Shootouts. Shootings,” Genoff added, saying, “People don’t feel safe.”
The cafe owner was not there on the day of the robbery, but he said the video was difficult to watch.
“Everyone outside ran inside to call police,” he said. “And the victims were in a state of shock. One woman was on the floor, not a chair, on the floor crying.”
Two of the cafe’s employees who were there at the time of the robbery have since taken consecutive days off to recover from the shock, according to Genoff.
The daytime robbery outside of the Geonoff’s cafe is just the latest violent crime to happen in the area.
Last month an employee was shot and killed at the Shoe Palace near N. Genessee Avenue over a dispute about a shoe raffle. A 16-year-old was arrested in connection to the murder.
Other incidents were reported in March and February, including several reports of robbers targeting victims wearing Rolex watches.
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