UPDATE: Two Indianapolis, Indiana residents have been charged with armed robbery with a firearm, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated fleeing and eluding police in relation to the armed robbery of the West Fremont Street Walgreen’s Monday morning.
18-year-olds Gates I. Sisk, and Davia A. Barbee were arrested Monday morning, several hours after the events of the robbery.
According to a press release from the Galesburg Police Department, officers were dispatched to the retailer at 4:28 a.m. in response to the armed robbery. Officers were notified that three suspects, two male and one female, made off with cash and prescription drugs.
Store employees and witnesses described all three of the robbers as African-American.
Several officers responded to the call, and one of the responding officers noticed a vehicle speeding across Henderson Street at Grove Street and observed the vehicle failed to stop at the Grove Street stop sign. That same vehicle was spotted crossing Losey Street at Monroe and, again, failed to stop at the stop sign.
Officers pulled up behind the gray SUV and attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver sped up and a police pursuit followed down several residential streets, eventually coming to a stop at the dead end of East Carl Sandburg Drive, near the BNSF railroad tracks. The vehicle went down into a brush filled ditch and the occupants fled on foot.
Pursing officers reported observing the occupants throwing items from the fleeing vehicle during the pursuit. Officers would discover the items thrown from the moving SUV included prescription bottles from Walgreen’s Pharmacy.
Officers, along with canine Ajax, began a search of the area. The vehicle was found abandoned in a remote area of the northeast edge of Galesburg, about a half mile from Walmart and Menard’s. The area includes a railroad right-of-way, corn, and soybean fields.
At 6:30 a.m., an employee at Walmart called to report a suspicious black male inside the business. The man was wet and covered in mud and was last seen entering the women’s restroom at the front of the store. Officers entered the business and found the man in the women’s restroom, taking him into custody.
Then, at 7:36 a.m., an officer was approached by a couple walking their dog, reporting that they spotted a person walking behind May Storage on Windish rive. Moments later, the officers spotted the person coming out from behind May Storage and asked the person to stop. That individual started running but was quickly apprehended by the officer.
A third individual remains at large.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Two individuals have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery that occurred this morning in Galesburg.
According to Lt. Jason Shaw with the police department, the Walgreens on Fremont and Henderson street was robbed at around 4:30.
WGIL will have more on this story as it develops.
