D.C. police have arrested four adults and three juveniles who they said were inside a Northeast Washington residence where police found drugs, firearms and a stolen puppy named Pablo.

       The 11-week-old Australian shepherd had been taken from his owner at gunpoint Wednesday and was rescued after nearly 30 hours of captivity. Pablo’s owners were relieved to reunite with their pup, as authorities continued their search for a 1-year-old French bulldog named Bruno, stolen during another armed robbery on the same day.

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       Police charged the seven people with receiving stolen property and said they were investigating them in the theft of Pablo and Bruno, a shooting that left two people injured, and another robbery. All three incidents occurred within one hour Wednesday afternoon in Northwest and Northeast Washington.

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       The arrests come as robberies in the city have spiked nearly 60 percent this year, according to Assistant Police Chief Morgan C. Kane.

       Many of the robberies have been concentrated in the past month along the U Street corridor and in Columbia Heights, Kane said Friday at a news conference that included Pablo and his owners. She said police across the District have confiscated nearly 800 firearms this year, a 40 percent increase over this time in 2021.

       While shootings, robberies and carjackings have garnered attention, publicity surged after Pablo and Bruno were taken at gunpoint 17 minutes apart while being walked in broad daylight in Brightwood Park and in Shaw. The victim from Shaw described the assailants as four masked males, one holding a gun.

       Four males take two dogs at gunpoint in separate robberies in D.C.

       “They should be able to walk down the street and walk their dog,” Kane said of the victims. The assistant chief, noting that she owns a miniature goldendoodle that she walks in the District, said, “It’s frustrating to see people intrude so carelessly on us just living our lives.”

       The owners of Pablo and Bruno made public pleas on social media, on television and in print publications, sharing pictures and their stories, which went viral on the Internet. Kane noted the thousands upon thousands of retweets and other shares, and she mentioned an unsolved fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy on Monday in Columbia Heights that did not attract as much attention.

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       The publicity for Pablo and Bruno, Kane said, “was great in this case, but we would love and need to see that in all of our cases. Our community safety depends on that.”

       Police said they have tied the same stolen silver Audi to the robberies of the dogs and to other crimes that occurred minutes later in Northeast Washington — a shooting that left two men injured in Eckington and a robbery near the NoMa-Gallaudet U Metro station.

       Kane said detectives with a regional carjacking task force formed last year found the Audi on Thursday night, and evidence from that discovery led police to a nearby residence in the 1200 block of 18th Place NE, near where one of Pablo’s owners said his stolen cellphone had pinged.

       Inside that residence just south of the National Arboretum, Kane said, police found four adults and juveniles ages 14, 15 and 17. They also found more than 100 rounds of ammunition, a .45 caliber handgun, an assault weapon resembling an AK-47 and Pablo, in the living room.

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       An officer called Pablo’s owners, Rick Oleka and his girlfriend, Abby Sevcik, and put them on FaceTime so they could see a detective holding their pet, which they had gotten April 2 from a nonprofit rescue group.

       “We were hysterical for a minute, and then we felt such a rush of relief,” said Sevcik, 27, who along with Oleka, 30, was at the police news conference Friday. They also brought the newly free Pablo, who fell asleep curled up at his owners’ feet midway through the briefing in front of police headquarters.

       Sevcik described the outpouring of concern and help “beyond our wildest imagination. We’re just hoping the momentum stays up and we can find Bruno.”

       Bruno’s owner Jamaica Harvey said she had not heard any updates. “I’m starting to feel a little bit discouraged,” she said Friday afternoon. “Something is definitely wrong.” She said if the people in the residence that police raided “have one dog, why don’t they have the other?”

       Kane said police believe there is a link between Bruno and Pablo and the residence on 18th Place, and are working with prosecutors to identify people who may have been involved in the armed holdups. She said additional charges could be filed against any or all of the seven people arrested Thursday night, or against others, as the investigation moves forward.

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       Kane said police were looking into how the group came to be at that residence and what plans people may have had for Pablo and possibly Bruno. The victims have raised the possibility the dogs were taken to be sold.

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       Police said one of the juveniles, a 15-year-old from Lanham, Md., has also been charged in three armed carjackings that occurred in the District on Tuesday.

       At the news conference, Kane called for accountability in the juvenile justice system, particularly with repeat offenders, but said, “I don’t think anyone is advocating they go to jail for the rest of their life.”

       At the same time, she said, “we also can’t have, and will not tolerate, having guns pointed at people’s faces and their belongings taken.”

       She said that juveniles “should go someplace they can get the help and the services they need, so they become a productive member of society. … They just can’t be back on the street to do it again to someone else.”