Two men were taken into custody and another was on the run after their Sunday afternoon attempt to rob Benson’s Grocery ran straight into a stubborn clerk.
A Q13 Fox television report says that two men were booked into King County Jail in the robbery of the E. Pike at Bellevue store while a third got away with around $400 cash. We’ll update on Monday after we get a chance to talk with SPD.
UPDATE Monday 10:22 AM:
SPD spokesperson Mark Jamieson confirms the details of the report on the crime that went down just before 4 PM on Sunday. The two men arrested were Tyrone Williams and Ronald Joiner. Both were booked on investigation of robbery while Joiner was also hit with a drug charge. Joiner was also carrying a screwdriver and a pocket knife when he was arrested.
Police do not currently have a description of the third suspect who fled the scene.
According to court records, both of the men arrested have extensive criminal records.
The 59-year-old Joiner’s last big run-in with the law was in 2007 when he pleaded guilty to stealing CDs from Nordstrom’s (4 Beyonce, 4 Marvin Gaye albums, according to court documents). By that time, he already had a history of 51 warrants with arrests ranging from drug charges to robbery. In total, he has been hit with 10 felonies since his first conviction in 1974 for a robbery in San Francisco. The then 24-year-old was sentenced to 14 days in jail.
The 53-year-old Williams is also a veteran criminal. In his last conviction in 2007, he pleaded guilty to possession of heroin. In all, Williams has tallied six felony convictions. Following a robbery with handgun conviction in 1977 in Cincinnati, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
The arrests fit into an odd crime trend on the Hill involving older-than-you-might-expect suspects. A 52-year-old man recently collapsed and was rushed to the hospital after police say he was trying to rob a man near Melrose and Pine.
Here’s the story from Q13 Fox :
it seems like this situation could have gone south had the robbers had weapons.
Why? Why would anyone put their life on the line for $400 in the till. He wasn’t even the owner of the business. As someone who has worked retail for years, you are always told to just let the robbers take the cash and get on camera doing it. This guy is extremely lucky. No job or amount of cash is worth the possibility of being killed.
blah blah blah ‘no amount of cash is worth it’, blah blah. If I am ever attacked again in my life, I will die fighting back, for not just protecting pocket change, but my self honor and integrity. It is easy to pass judgment on those that have suffered a violent crime from the comfort of your keyboard, but until you actually encounter this yourself you have no idea which way your fight of flight instinct is going to react. I applaud this man for fighting evil. These robberies are escalating, the police rarely have an outcome like this one where they catch these criminals.
If we keep saying to ourselves, “Let the crooks just have whatever they want,” what kind of message are we sending? I’m glad the clerk fought back. As a community, it’s our job to keep it difficult for bad people to get away with horrible things.