Football: Pioneer Valley star faces robbery charges

Staff Writer

Nov. 18, 2009 3:34 PM PT

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It hasn’t been a good year for a couple of star running backs. Lakewood’s Jerry Stone was arrested on attempted murder charges before the season and will be tried as an adult.

And now comes Pioneer Valley’s Shawn Tucker, who faces charges of strong-armed robbery with a gang enhancement following an incident last weekend in which he was arrested after a 19-year-old man alleged that Tucker and two others assaulted him and took his wallet. A 14-year-old girl was also arrested in connection with the incident. The victim was not injured.

Tucker did not enter a plea at his arraignment hearing, which was continued to Friday. The 18-year-old has been identified as a gang member by police and has a criminal record including robbery, assault and grand theft. His mother, Beverly Tucker, told the Santa Maria Times that the latest incident is a case of mistaken identity.

Tucker had scored 13 touchdowns for the Panthers (9-1), who play host to Lawndale (5-5) on Friday in the first round of the Northwest Division playoffs.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider

Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.