Trackdown: Help find the school serial phone robbers

In this week’s Trackdown, police need help finding some serial cell phone robbers mainly targeting Dallas ISD students.

FOX 4 News obtained an image released by Dallas ISD PD to Dallas PD that shows the suspects’ car in all but the last robbery of a Cockrell Hill woman that happened Monday. Another image shows one of the people behind the gun during the smartphone stickups.

The robberies have happened six times on or near Dallas ISD schools in Oak Cliff and one in Cockrell Hill in many ways the same as how the others went down.

The crooks have taken the phones and demanded the passcodes so they can get in and wipe them clean before selling them on the streets. The grown black men going after middle and high school Hispanic students for their cell phones.

When Lisa Ramirez shared the scary story of being robbed for her cellphone at gunpoint in Cockrell Hill, how it went down was eerily similar to several other cell phone capers since the middle of February targeting Dallas ISD students. The robbers may have thought she was a student.

“I had my backpack on,” she said. “And I just had my phone in my hand like this. And that’s when he snatched it.”

The first very similar incident happened at or near Kimball High School on Feb. 15 at 5:55 p.m.

The next robbery was four days later at 5:26 p.m. near Zan Wesley Holmes Middle School.

Roosevelt High school was the next target on Feb. 21 at about 5 p.m.

A student from Zan Wesley Holmes was hit again on Feb. 22 around 7 p.m.

Students from Stockard Middle School were the next targets. Their phones were snatched at gunpoint twice on Feb. 25 around 4:15 p.m. and again on March 1.

“One male gets off and tells them, ‘Hand me your phones. And they all said no,” explained Diana Guerra, whose child was robbed at gunpoint. “That’s when he pulls out a .38 and puts it to their backs and says, ‘Get on the ground. Give me your phones, or I’m gonna kill you.’”

Expect in the latest Cockrell Hill robbery, all of the other robberies have involved a black Chevrolet Cruze. All of the suspects are black. One of the suspects is described as a light-skinned male between 22 to 25. He was slim, about 5’9” and had tattoos on his arms and neck and threatened his victims with a black revolver. So far, all of the victims have been young Hispanic teens.

“I was glad that everybody was okay and that they didn’t get shot or killed,” Guerra said. “And then there goes my anger. How can somebody pick on 12 and 13-year-olds?”

Dallas ISD is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with info is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (877)373-8477 or text Dallas ISD tips at 274827.