DeKALB – Police arrested two armed robbery suspects Tuesday who later caused a car crash at the intersection of Peace Road and Pleasant Street.
Maurice Mullen, 23, of Aurora, and Ryan Joyner-Pool, 26, of Montgomery, were charged with armed robbery, armed violence, burglary, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated fleeing and eluding.
Each man could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of armed robbery or armed violence, the most serious charges.
Police were notified at 11:38 a.m. of a robbery at the AT&T Store in the 2200 block of Sycamore Road. Two armed men entered the store and ordered the five or six employees to the ground, according to a news release from DeKalb police.
One of the men bound the hands of some employees with duct tape while the other man collected merchandise from the store, according to the release.
The thieves took about $21,000 worth of merchandise and were seen leaving the area in a tan Pontiac Grand Prix, police said.
DeKalb police located the car and attempted to stop it on Sycamore Road. The suspects did not stop and several police agencies pursued the car in a high-speed chase. The suspects’ vehicle reached a speed of more than 100 mph on Peace Road, DeKalb police Lt. Gary Spangler said.
The chase ended when the men crashed into another car at the intersection of Pleasant Street and Peace Road. Both men ran from the vehicle and were apprehended soon after.
Steve Almburg of Malta was northbound on Peace Road, stopped for a red light at the intersection with Pleasant Street, when he noticed a car headed south on Peace run the red light and strike a car that was driving east on Pleasant.
The driver of the car that ran the red light lost control and veered into a fence near the General Electric building, Almburg said. The driver then ran east across Peace Road, jumped a fence and began running toward DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport with police in pursuit. Police soon stopped him.
“Where he thought he was running, I don’t know,” Almburg said.
A second man fled the car in another direction, Almburg said. The intersection was tied up for 15 to 20 minutes because of the incident.
Spangler said there were conflicting reports about whether both men were armed or only one had a weapon during the robbery.
He said police were in the process of obtaining a warrant to search the Grand Prix.
No one was injured and the case remains under investigation, according to the news release.
