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TBS Today, Aug. 29

A man police say followed customers from local banks into Berkeley, and then robbed them, is now facing felony charges in three separate cases.

In one of the incidents, authorities say 19-year-old Elijah Simpson and another man chased down a UC Berkeley swim coach and wrested two backpacks containing thousands of dollars in property from her.

Here's our latest scoop.

Also: TBS was in court all day (we still are!) for the preliminary hearing of Ricardo Ruiz, the local political agitator who was shot by Berkeley police responding to a domestic violence call at his apartment in April.

Testimony, from several Berkeley police officers, ended shortly after 4 p.m., followed by rather protracted legal arguments.

In the end, the judge held Ruiz to answer on 10 of the 11 felonies he was facing, with one of the gun possession charges dropped to a misdemeanor.

Unfortunately, the three-day weekend is upon us, as is our daily deadline, so stay tuned until next week for our story on the hearing.

And we're here through the weekend in case major news breaks.

Catalytic converter uptick?

We got the following tip this afternoon and wanted to pass it on.

A reader alerted us that their catalytic converter had been stolen from their Toyota Prius at about 5 a.m. Friday, from California Street and Buena Avenue in North Berkeley.

He said he drove to Toyota of Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue and "while waiting, five other cars arrived with stolen converters. Staff said thefts have jumped in the past two weeks."

We'll aim to learn more from BPD next week.

More context from a reader: Woman into bay

A young man helps a woman who drove into the bay last week. *Scanner Insider*

We reported briefly this week about a woman who had driven into the bay before being taken for a mental health assessment.

After publication, we learned a bit more from a reader.

They said their son and his friend had been taking a break during a bike ride at the Berkeley Marina when they "heard the car, turned and watched as the car hit a rock and flew into the bay."

They started yelling to the driver "but she was knocked out and not responding. He jumped in and … swam to the car."

She ultimately came to and he was able to force open her car door to help her get out to safety.

We'll update our story in due time but, for now, we wanted to share it exclusively with you in TBS Today.