BRIEFLY IN PUBLIC SAFETY

Man arrested in $1 bank robbery Friday

A third Laguna Beach bank has been robbed.

The Bank of America on Ocean Avenue was robbed shortly after 4 p.m. Nov. 2.

The robber used a fast-food-restaurant bag to cover what appeared to be a simulated gun, which he pointed at a teller and demanded $1, according to Laguna Beach police reports.

The robber left the bank on foot with the dollar and police found him hiding under a blanket at Main Beach, Sgt. Darin Lenyi said.

Kenneth Scott Hibbs, 41, of Venice, was arrested near a lifeguard tower. The money from the robbery was retrieved. No gun was found.

Hibbs was held at Orange County jail on $50,000 bail.

The incident is the third bank robbery in Laguna Beach in about three weeks. The first two robberies took place at Citizens Bank on Glenneyre Street, which had been robbed Thursday, one day prior to the Bank of America robbery.

At an Oct. 19 robbery at Citizens Bank, the alleged robber exchanged gunfire with police before being arrested.

‘Suspicion’ leads to alleged assault

Two Laguna Beach police officers were allegedly nearly run down at 2:02 a.m. Nov. 1 by a man later arrested on a DUI charge as well as assault with a deadly weapon — his car, Sgt. Darin Lenyi said.

Police dispatch received a 911 call from someone who was concerned that a car was backed into his neighbor’s garage and two men were repeatedly getting in and out of the vehicle in the 3000 block of Crestwood Circle, Lenyi said.

Police officers responded and approached the men on foot. The men got in the car and the officers drew their weapons and ordered them to halt.

Then the driver allegedly accelerated toward the officers at a high rate of speed, forcing the officers to jump out of the way.

A description of the vehicle and suspects was broadcast over police radio, and the vehicle was stopped by other officers.

The original officers identified the pair as the ones who allegedly tried to run them over, Lenyi said.

The driver of the car, Raiford D. Adams, Jr., 32, of San Antonio, Texas, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, DUI and being under the influence of an illegal drug. The passenger, Gerard Martin Aguilar, 37, of Elk Grove, was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public.

Police did not find anything suspicious in the vehicle.