Sgt. Robert William, Adjutant to the Chief of Police
Office: 818-548-3140
rwilliam@glendaleca.gov
Glendale, CA - The Glendale Police Department and Los Angeles Police Department share resources in a team effort to locate and arrest two dangerous men who were on a spree of committing robberies and in some incidents, killed their victims.
On January 18, 2017 at approximately 9:15 PM, the American Market located in the 1700 block of Lake Street in Glendale was robbed by an armed suspect who was wearing a hoodie over a white hat. As the suspect fled the scene, he inadvertently dropped his white hat which was recovered by police.
Glendale Robbery/Homicide detectives began reviewing the surveillance footage from the market and the suspect’s description. A detective realized the suspect’s description matched the description of a suspect from two robberies in Los Angeles. One of the robberies occurred at Big Tommy’s restaurant in the West Los Angeles area during the early morning hours of January 17, 2017. The suspect in that robbery was dressed similarly and handled the gun in the same fashion as to the robbery in Glendale. Approximately one hour after the Big Tommy’s restaurant robbery, a similarly described suspect committed an armed robbery at the Chevron Gas station located in the 1200 block of North Vermont in Northeast area of Los Angeles. The suspect fired the weapon at the clerk even though the clerk had complied with the suspect’s demands. The victim was killed.
Based on the similarities of the robbery in Glendale and the crimes in Los Angeles, Glendale Police Department detectives met with the detectives from Los Angeles Police Department on January 19th. Meanwhile, the Glendale Police Department had submitted the suspect’s hat to the Glendale Police Department’s Verdugo Regional Crime Lab which is housed inside the Glendale Police station. Within 21 hours, a team of forensic examiners had developed a profile from the suspect’s hat. Detectives and forensic examiners worked around the clock to expedite this process due to the severity of the crimes and the likelihood that the suspect would strike again. On January 20th at approximately 11 AM (approximately 38 hours after the Glendale robbery and 23 hours after DNA processing of the hat began), the California Department of Justice found a “hit” to the profile uploaded from the hat. The suspect was identified as 25 year old Kayshon Moody of Los Angeles. By that afternoon, the LAPD’s detectives located Moody and took him into custody. Moody was found in possession of a semi-automatic handgun and in the company of another male – 21 year old James Eastland of Los Angeles. At the time, there was no evidence tying Eastland to any of the crimes and as a result he was released at the scene.
Kayshon Moody had been arrested previously by Glendale Police Department in 2014 for possession of methamphetamine which at the time was still a felony, requiring him to submit a DNA sample to the Department of Justice.
During the course of this investigation, Los Angeles Police detectives realized there had been another robbery and murder of a marijuana dispensary on January 18th in the Pacific Division area of Los Angeles. The owner of the dispensary was shot and killed during the commission of the robbery. Two suspects were seen in the surveillance footage of this incident and the suspects had fired approximately 10 rounds.
Glendale Police Department’s Forensic Services Unit, which has access to the National Information Ballistic Identification Network (NIBIN), processed the shell casings found at the robbery/murder on the Chevron gas station case. This analysis confirmed that the shell casings found at the Chevron were fired by the same gun as the marijuana dispensary case.
In reviewing the totality of the investigation, detectives learned the male who was in the company of Kayshon Moody at the time of his arrest – James Eastland, closely resembled the robbery suspect inside the American Market robbery in Glendale, as well as the second suspect from the marijuana dispensary robbery/murder.
Investigators set out to locate and arrest James Eastland. With the assistance from the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force (a multi-jurisdictional task force housed in Glendale PD), James Eastland was located in the City of Los Angeles and arrested. Eastland has since confessed to investigators about his involvement.
“The investment that the City of Glendale has made on the police department’s capabilities – including its ability to process DNA and firearm shell casings and the relentless on-going investigation by both our sworn and professional staff led to the rapid identification and arrest of these dangerous suspects. I have no doubt that the speed with which the men and women who were involved in this investigation brought this violent crime spree to an end and saved many lives. I am truly proud of this exemplary police work by all police personnel” – Chief Rob Castro
