Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504200051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BREEA WILLINGHAM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Charles Barnitz and his two children were on the way to the Old Country Buffet on Starkey Road around 2 p.m. when his 11-year-old daughter saw a woman chasing two men who were running out of Lemons' Jewelry in Old Country Plaza. The men got into a car with two women waiting in the back seat.
"She said, `Daddy, I think those two men just robbed that store,''' said Barnitz, an off-duty rescue squad volunteer. ``I couldn't believe it. Not in broad daylight. I asked the jewelry store owner what happened and she said they stole a tray of diamond rings. I called it in, put on my red lights and started chasing them.''
As the men were trying to elude Barnitz, they hit a car waiting at a stoplight to make a left turn from Ogden Road onto Virginia 419.
The driver, who didn't want to give her name, joined in the chase to try to find out who hit her car.
"I saw the car hit me from behind and it went around me. I looked at the white ... car chasing them and I followed him," she said.
The suspects turned onto the Webber Highway and headed north. Roanoke police officer J.W. Michael was on radar duty on the highway when he received the call about the chase.
Michael said the suspects' car tried to elude him by switching lanes. He joined the chase, with Barnitz and the other woman still in pursuit.
The chase ended after the suspects, the police and Barnitz got off the expressway at Wonju Street, pulling off on a closed on-ramp. While the women stayed in the car, the two men ran, Michael said.
One was caught on Stephenson Avenue across from Franklin Road, and the other was caught on Broadway Street Southwest.
Police found one diamond ring in the car. Police, assisted by a police dog, found 11 more rings scattered in the grass.
The rings were valued at $1,700 each. Two still were missing Tuesday night.
Police identified the suspects as Vernon Ricardo Cooper, Donald Parrish Smith, Leslie Melissa Gross and Deborah Sands, all of the Washington, D.C., area.
All were charged with grand larceny and taken to the Roanoke County Jail. Sands was being held in lieu of $12,000 bond; the others were being held without bond.
The jewelry store closed for the rest of the day, and the owner was unavailable for comment.
by CNB