THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090296
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Two suspects were arrested Monday, and a third was being sought in connection with an armed robbery of the Farm Fresh grocery store on North Main Street.
Three masked teenagers, each carrying a gun and one holding a knife, robbed the store in the Suffolk Shopping Center about 2 a.m. Monday, bound five employees and fled, police said. No one was injured.
Arrested were Steven C. Cofield, 18, of the 5400 block of Pruden Blvd., and Jeffrey A. Ashby, 18, of the 1100 block of Elm St.
Police had an arrest warrant for the third suspect, a 17-year-old from Suffolk whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile.
Cofield, a Nansemond River High School sophomore and a former employee of the store, was taken into custody in Isle of Wight County after a 20-mile chase from a parking lot near the Farm Fresh, police said.
Ashby, who police said fled on foot, was arrested about 8:30 a.m. at Nansemond River High School.
A woman who was waiting in the Farm Fresh parking lot for her husband to come out of the store spotted the suspects running out wearing masks and carrying duffle bags. She called the 911 emergency operator.
Suffolk police officer D.B. Davis, who was nearby, spotted Cofield in a blue 1987 Mazda pickup truck pulling out of the parking lot of the Golden Corral restaurant on North Main Street.
Davis, unable to stop Cofield, chased him for about 24 minutes, heading west on U.S. Route 460 and into Isle of Wight.
Cofield was apprehended on Iron Mine Springs Road after he lost control of the truck on the dirt road near Orbit. He was surrounded by officers from Suffolk, the Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Department and the state police.
Suffolk police spokesman Mike Simpkins said three teenagers entered the store just before 2 a.m. and forced five employees to lie on the floor. They bound the victims' hands and feet with duct tape and forced one of the victims, a cashier, to open a cash drawer in the customer service booth. The robbers took a small amount of currency, a bank bag and a carton of cigarettes.
Cofield and Ashby were each charged with five counts of abduction, five counts of robbery, two counts of use of a firearm in a felony, one count of use of a mask in public and one count of conspiracy to commit larceny.
Cofield was being held Monday afternoon at Western Tidewater Regional Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. Ashby, who was still at Suffolk police headquarters late Monday, was expected to be taken to the jail Monday night.
Police have recovered the money, bank bag, two semiautomatic handguns, a BB gun and a filet knife.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY by CNB