Robbery Purse Snatch Series

HAYWARD, Calif., April 29, 2021 — The Hayward Police Department has been investigating a series of smash and grab robberies over the last several months in Hayward and the surrounding Bay Areas.

In most of these cases, the suspects watched victims after they conducted a bank transaction or purchased items in different shopping centers. Once the victims got into their vehicles, the suspects smashed the windows of the cars, stole the victim’s property from inside, and fled the area. On several occasions, these suspects approached the victims before they reached their cars and forcibly took the victim’s property. Most of these victims are female and are members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

To this date, there are 37 different robberies that took place in Hayward in this similar manner.

Detectives were assigned to these cases and conducted extensive follow-up investigations. As a result, it was determined several other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area also had similarly reported robberies. Some of the other jurisdictions include the San Jose Police Department, Union City Police Department, Newark Police Department, Oakland Police Department, and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

On Wednesday April 28, 2021, the Hayward Police Department’s Robbery Unit collaborated with and received assistance from the San Jose Police Department’s Robbery Unit and Covert Response Unit, who arrested one of the suspects in these robberies. The suspect, who has been identified as Hassani Burleson-Ramsey, a resident of Oakland, was taken into custody and was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for multiple counts of felony robbery and misdemeanor vandalism. Burleson-Ramsey has been connected to at least five robberies in the city of Hayward.

This is an ongoing investigation, and more information will be released to the public when it is available. There is at least one suspect still outstanding who has not been identified and is at large.

Anyone with information related to these incidents is asked to contact Detective Niedenthal at 510-293-7167.

The Hayward Police Department case number is 2021-018532.