Police arrest five in connection with multiple robberies in three cities
JACKSON, Tenn.– The spree of robberies began between December 6 and December 9 when multiple gas stations were robbed at gunpoint by a group of individuals, according to investigators. Two stores on East Chester and two on North Parkway in Jackson were affected by the armed robbers.
Fast forward to December 20, when Chief Jeff Middleton of the Lexington Police Department confirmed the I-40 Vape Shop and a Family Dollar discount store had been robbed in the same night. According to Chief Middleton, two black males, wearing dark clothing, and armed with handguns, came into the stores, and took money. We talked with Emilie Rhodes a week after the robbery. Rhodes, an employee at the I-40 Vape Shop, recounted the horrifying experience.
“They just told me don’t move and open the register, told me to give them the money basically,” said Rhodes.
She told us at first she froze, until she says the men came closer holding handguns.
“The one closest to me to me put a gun to the back of my head and the other one kind of had a gun pointed at me and they were both just telling me open the register, open the register,” said Rhodes.
Two days after those robberies the Marathon Little General gas station in Lexington on North Broad Street was robbed. Again, the suspects were armed with handguns.
On December 27, the Zippy’s gas station on Highway 45 in Henderson, in Chester County, was robbed in the same fashion. According to a news release from the Henderson Police Department, after officers arrived on scene they issued a broadcast of a suspect vehicle that left the Zippy’s store after the robbery and headed north.
According to a news release from the Jackson Police Department, about 45 minutes later, a Madison County Sheriff’s Office Deputy noticed a vehicle off of Hart’s Bridge Road in south Madison County and followed it to city limits. Once in the city limits, a coordinated traffic stop was carried out and five arrests were made by Jackson police. The five, three adults and two juveniles were arrested without incident. They have been charged in connection to the robberies in the three cities. Jackson police have not released their names or their charges at this time.
The Jackson Police Department, Madison County Sheriff’s Office, Henderson Police Department, Lexington Police Department, the 26th Judicial Drug Task Force, the West Tennessee Drug Task Force, the ATF, and the FBI all collaborated to make these arrest.
