PINOLE -- Investigators believe three men arrested earlier this month after a shootout with police in Pittsburg could be responsible for as many as six robberies reported in Pinole since March, Pinole Police Chief Jim Rose said Wednesday.

"We feel that we have a group of three or four individuals that have committed half a dozen of our robberies," Rose said at a news conference in front of City Hall.

The three suspects have been identified as Edjuan Scott, a 24-year-old parolee out of Rodeo, Dominique Cole, a 19-year-old Richmond resident, and Renwicke Lampkin, a 20-year-old Rodeo resident, Pittsburg police Lt. Brian Addington said.

The men were caught on Aug. 9 after they allegedly robbed a bank in Antioch and then led police on a chase into Pittsburg, where Scott allegedly fired at several officers.

Police returned fire, striking Cole and Lamkin before arresting all three men, Addington said.

Shortly after the arrests, police linked the trio to a Wells Fargo bank robbery in Pinole that had occurred the day before. Rose didn't specify which other robberies the three are being blamed for.

The number of robberies reported in Pinole hasn't significantly increased from last year - 38 this year as compared to 36 this time last year - but the level of violence in the robberies appears to have increased, Rose said.

Pinole Mayor Peter Murray said the city has been working with local merchants to teach them how to help prevent robberies, how to report robberies and how to keep employees safe should their businesses be robbed.

Rose said police are also working with the Richmond, San Pablo, El Cerrito and Hercules police departments to address what he referred to as the "recent rash of robberies" up and down the Interstate Highway 80 corridor.