Kennewick man trying to sell his phone ends up robbed at gunpoint

One teen is in custody and another is still being sought for allegedly robbing an 18-year-old at gunpoint over a cellphone.

The victim had put his cellphone up for sale on a buy/sell website like Craigslist or eBay. Kennewick police did not name the specific online service.

When the man met up with the prospective buyers in a parking lot on the 2800 block of West Clearwater Avenue just before 2:45 p.m. Sunday, there was a scuffle with the two would-be buyers, police said in a Facebook posting.

One of the suspects showed a gun during the fight, then the two ran off after grabbing the phone from the victim, police said.

Officers and a police dog searched the area Sunday afternoon but could not find the robbers.

However, police working on several leads got search warrants for two separate apartments on West Bruneau Place and West Clearwater Avenue, and allegedly recovered evidence of the crime at both locations.

A 13-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of robbery and booked into the Benton-Franklin Juvenile Detention Center.

Police said Monday morning they are still working to identify the second suspect, who is believed to be a 14-year-old boy.

They encourage people doing similar transactions to take advantage of special parking spaces like those outside the Kennewick and Pasco police departments.

“While these internet sites provide a great opportunity to buy or sell used items, we would like to remind people that you do not generally know the people on the other end of the transaction, and therefore you may not know their true intentions,” Kennewick police said in a second Facebook post.

“For those reasons, we have designated parking spots in front of the Kennewick Police Department for people to meet up to complete these transactions more safely. These parking spaces are in public view and recorded by our security cameras.”

This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 10:19 AM.