One way to elude police after mugging someone is to hit another victim, and then another, continuing to strike as officers are tied up processing the previous scenes.

	Brandyn Seabreeze

That was the formula of a man who may be responsible for 20 robberies in Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside and Downtown over the past several weeks, police said.

They identified him as Brandyn Seabreeze, 22, of Braddock, and said he robbed victims at gunpoint, sometimes taking their wallets, sometimes marching them to ATM machines and forcing them to withdraw money, sometimes taking their ATM cards and PINs so he could withdraw the cash himself, always robbing several people in quick succession.

It worked for a while.

Police officers captured Seabreeze about 1 a.m. yesterday after two hours of chasing as they responded to five reports of armed robberies in Shadyside and Oakland.

Usually police close in for the capture, but for this robber they had to spread out, robbery squad Sgt. Aaron Beatty said.

When city police realized the series of armed robberies might be the work of one person, they looked for patterns, Beatty said yesterday at a news conference.

Their robber worked weeknights after dark, and was familiar with parking garages and ATM locations Downtown and in Oakland and Shadyside. He always wore a dark hooded sweat shirt and a ski mask. He robbed both men and women. And he hit multiple times in short succession.

That meant that as police were rushing to one scene, he was already hitting another victim, Beatty said. In some cases, police arrived within a minute or two of a 911 call and still missed their man.

To catch him, Beatty needed enough officers so that some could respond to scenes of crimes that had just occurred and others could stay put, staking out areas where the robber had struck before and maintaining a perimeter to keep him from escaping.

So when a call reporting a man fitting the robber's description in Shadyside came in at 10:45 Monday night, dozens of officers from the city and from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University were ready.

Then, reports of robberies started coming in, moving from Shadyside into Oakland: Ellsworth Avenue, then Maryland Avenue and Elmer Street, then Craig Street, then Bates Street and finally Forbes Avenue.

Pitt police spotted the suspect just after a robbery at Forbes and McKee Place in Oakland.

Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh police formed a perimeter around that area, and officers spotted him running at various times.

Just after 1 a.m., city Sgt. Raymond Hutton saw the suspect run into a parking garage on Craft Avenue and ran after him.

When Hutton caught up with him, Seabreeze pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband and turned toward the sergeant, Beatty said. Hutton knocked him down and ordered him to drop his gun. When he refused, Officer Ryan Rable of the Squirrel Hill station shot him with a stun gun.

Police recovered a neoprene ski mask, $1,300 in cash, marijuana, and a cell phone and ATM card belonging to robbery victims. Four of last night's victims were taken to the scene and identified Seabreeze as the robber.

Seabreeze had no car keys at the time of the arrest, and police have not found a vehicle connected with the robberies, although they have not ruled out that he may have one. Beatty said police now believe Seabreeze used his feet and perhaps buses to move from place to place.

Seabreeze was charged with four counts of robbery, two counts of receiving stolen property, firearms violations and drug possession. He is being held at Allegheny County Jail on a $100,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17.

Police said he is a suspect in 16 more robberies, dating to the beginning of the year, and that more charges are pending.

Police aren't sure if Monday night's first robbery, at 11:05 p.m. on Ellsworth, is related because they haven't found the victim. A person detained there matching the description of the robber was released after police decided he was not their suspect.

Beatty said there were two or three minor injuries reported during robberies they believe Seabreeze might have committed, the result of scuffles between the robber and victims.

During last night's incidents, Seabreeze pushed a woman against a stairwell in the lobby of her Bates Street apartment building around 1 a.m. before running off with her ATM card, PIN number and cash, according to a criminal complaint.

Earlier in the evening, he returned the ATM card of another woman after making her withdraw $400 from a PNC Bank branch Fifth Avenue and South Craig Street. While robbing a man on Forbes Avenue, he told the victim, "Appreciate it," and then ran off, taking a cell phone and $60.

Seabreeze has a criminal record going back to 2001, with multiple charges of burglary, theft and receiving stolen property. He was also charged with fleeing and eluding, escape, firearms violations and aggravated assault.

Beatty said Seabreeze was incarcerated until late last year, and police believe he was living in a halfway house during the time of the robberies, though Seabreeze told them he is homeless.