Two Tosa West Students Arrested at School for Armed Robberies

Two students were taken into custody last week at the school on felony warrants for armed robbery, according to police.

The students - a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, both from Milwaukee - were implicated in robberies or conspiracies to commit robberies of five Walgreens pharmacies on Dec. 21, police said.

The two teenagers arrested, along with two more arrested at the time of the crimes, were not after cash but rather oxycodone, a prescription narcotic often sold illegally on the street, police said.

Milwaukee police investigated the incidents as armed robberies because the perpetrators implied they had weapons, although no reports indicated any weapons were recovered.

According to a Wauwatosa police report, Milwaukee detectives contacted the Wauwatosa West school resource officer last week and advised them they had warrants for two students' arrest.

The Wauwatosa officer confirmed the warrants, confirmed that the students were at school and took them into custody there at 8:16 a.m. on Jan. 4. They were then taken to the Wauwatosa police station and turned over to Milwaukee police.

Milwaukee police arrest reports confirmed that the warrants were connected to the Walgreens robberies.

According to a FOX6 News interview Dec. 22 with a Milwaukee police captain that was provided to Wauwatosa Patch, the five Walgreens stores spread across a wide swath of the metro area were targeted in just an hour-and-a-half by the teens.

According to the interview:

At 8 p.m., two of the teens entered the first store at 2950 N. Oakland Ave., presented a note at the pharmacy counter and succeeded in getting away with a quantity of oxycodone.

They next went to 2727 W. North Ave. and entered the store but didn't like what they saw, "called an audible" and left without creating alarm. Then they did the same at the Wauwatosa ., leaving without incident. The police consider those conspiracies.

At their fourth stop, at a West Allis store at Highway 100 and West Greenfield Avenue, they did attempt a robbery but store employees did not give in to their demands for drugs and they left empty-handed.

At the fifth and final stop, at 9:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee store at 4730 S. Layton Ave., two of the teens entered the store and demanded and were given oxycodone. But a manager chased them outside, and a citizen bystander tackled and held a 14-year-old boy as he ran.

FOX6 posted a video account Dec. 22 of the actions of Larry Miller in making the capture. Milwaukee police told Fox that Miller would be nominated for a Meritorious Service Award. In the same story, Fox reported that a second suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was taken into custody the next morning and that Milwaukee police were seeking two more suspects, a boy and a girl.

In the robberies, at least two teenagers went to the pharmacy counters and presented a note demanding the drugs and implied they had weapons, Fox 6 said.

Wauwatosa Patch's calls to and West High administrators to comment on the students' arrests have not been returned.