SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Scottsdale Police Department said detectives are reviewing two armed robbery cases from 2019 and 2020 to see if there are any connections. An arrest was made in the 2020 case but the 2019 case remains unsolved.
Cudjoe Young was arrested and charged in connection to the 2020 case. He was also charged with armed robbery for a 2020 case in Phoenix. The victim in that case was Mercedes Vega, a woman who was murdered in April 2023.
All victims in the three armed robbery cases were dancers at the same gentlemen's club. All were targeted in the parking lots of their homes in the early morning hours after coming home from work.
'The gun was shaking a little bit so I could tell he was getting nervous.'
The 2019 Scottsdale victim opened up about the terrifying attack on the condition of anonymity. She's concerned for her safety as no arrests have been made in her case.
“That event was so life-altering in a really negative way for me," she said. "It felt like it got swept under the rug.”
She said the armed robbery happened around 4:30 a.m. She had just parked near her aunt's condo, which she had lived in for about a month. That's when a man holding a gun ran up to her. He was wearing a ski mask and he demanded she drop her bags.
“I became, like, completely paralyzed. I could not move at all. I was just like, screaming," she said. "I was trying to drop my stuff or like throw it at him because he was getting kind nervous. The gun was shaking a little bit so I could tell he was getting nervous because it was taking a long time because I was just screaming and I couldn't move.”
She said he then got closer to her face with the gun.
"It wasn't, like, pressing my skin or anything. But it was like, right there," she recalled.
He then took her bags off of her shoulder and ran. She ran to the apartment to call 911.
“I thought that he took my keys because I couldn't remember anything. So I was just like, banging really, really hard on her door. And like, my knuckles started bleeding because I was hitting it so hard and I was so freaked out," she said.
Scottsdale PD responded and launched an investigation.
She said police were suspicious the suspect followed her home from work. However, police said they did not make a request for surveillance video from the gentlemen's club where she worked.
She immediately moved elsewhere.
2 more dancers from same club victimized
Less than a year later, in October 2020, another dancer at the same gentlemen's club was robbed at gunpoint. Mercedes Vega was the victim in that case in the parking lot of her apartment complex.
A month after that, another dancer from the same club reported a man attempted to rob her at gunpoint in the parking garage of her Scottsdale apartment. He reportedly ran off when a passerby arrived.
“It was the same thing that happened to me," said the 2019 victim. "Ski mask, all of that. There was just so many similarities."
Cudjoe Young was arrested in connection to both 2020 cases and a police report shows he was seen inside of the gentlemen's club following the incidents.
Young was charged with armed robbery and attempt to commit armed robbery. His trial has been delayed several times. It's set for October of this year.
RELATED: Mercedes Vega was cooperating in armed robbery investigation before being tortured, murdered
Scottsdale PD to review 2019 and 2020 cases
Now that Scottsdale PD has stated they are reviewing the 2019 and 2020 cases, the 2019 victim feels a sense of hope.
A police spokesperson said the process could take some time as detectives review physical evidence and other information in the cases.
“I felt seen in a way because it did have such a negative impact on me. I do want justice," she said. "It wouldn't make anything that happened better, honestly. But it would just make me feel better that somebody's being forced to take accountability for something that they thought that they weren't going to have to do because it happened so long ago.”
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