City Detectives Honored For Big Quarter

The entire detective division of the was honored for an impressive string of closed cases in the third quarter of the year.

In all, their work resulted in 124 high-profile charges against 13 people for crimes ranging from petit larceny to felony destruction of property.

Among the notable cases which earned the detective division third quarter honors was the investigation into the

At around 5:50 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, three masked suspects barged into the gas station brandishing weapons. The trio ordered the two employees and a customer, all women, inside the store to lay on the floor. During the robbery, the suspects discharged pepper spray at the women in the store and stole cash from the register and the victims' purses. The suspects also trashed the office and stole cigarettes from the store.

As they fled from the scene, one of the suspects forced another woman in the parking lot to give up her car. The suspect then stole the car and drove away. The other two suspects fled on foot.

Asides from suffering the temporary effects of the pepper spray, none of the four victims was seriously hurt during the incident.

. The third suspect is still at large.

Another high profile case was the

Police say three men pushed their way inside a home on the 300 block of Altoona Drive on Aug. 15 around 5:45 p.m. One of the suspects brandished a handgun, pointing it at the victim, and demanded that he hand over money and prescription medications used to treat his cancer. The victim cannot speak, a result of his vocal chords being removed because of his cancer.  

Police say the victim resisted at first, at which point one of the three robbers struck the victim repeatedly across the torso until he complied with their demands, turning over the medicine and the cash in his pocket. Police were alerted to the incident by another resident of the house who heard the ruckus and called 911.

The suspects ran from the house and left driving in a white SUV. Police believe a fourth suspect stayed with the car during the robbery, but have not identified him. A neighbor was able to provide police with a partial license plate number for the fleeing vehicle, which aided in the investigation.