THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601070077
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Two men believed to be responsible for a crime spree from Hampton Roads to Richmond were arrested Saturday after a carjacking in Virginia Beach and a three-city chase that ended when their vehicle crashed.
Police said their victims played a big role in the pair's capture by providing quick, accurate descriptions.
The two apparently targeted people walking between their homes and vehicles, police spokesman Mike Carey said Saturday.
Four people were robbed that way late Friday in Virginia Beach. Police consider the pair to be suspects in four similar incidents in Virginia Beach and several others elsewhere.
Carey identified one of the suspects as Adrian T. Evans, 20, of the 1500 block of Bardot Lane in Portsmouth. He is being held without bond on one charge of carjacking, another of car theft, four counts of armed robbery and one count of use of a firearm in committing a felony. He also faces numerous traffic charges.
The other suspect, whose name was not released because he is 16, is being held at the Tidewater Detention Home. The Portsmouth teenager is charged with carjacking, four counts of armed robbery and one count of use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Other charges are pending, Carey said.
Events leading to the pair's capture began about 9:30 p.m. Friday when a 58-year-old man was getting out of his car at his home in the 300 block of Tomahawk Trail.
A man approached him with a handgun and demanded his wallet. He surrendered the wallet and the gunman fled. He immediately called police.
About an hour later in the 1300 block of N. Bayshore Drive in Bay Colony, an elderly couple was accosted.
The husband and wife were getting out of their car when a man came at them with a gun. He demanded - and they gave him - their wallet and purse. The gunman sped off in a pickup driven by an accomplice.
The couple immediately called 911 with a detailed description, Carey said.
``A responding police officer observed the vehicle passing him in the opposite direction as he drove into the Bay Colony area,'' Carey said.
The officer tried to catch the pickup, but it eventually lost the police car on the neighborhood streets.
Later, the pickup was found abandoned at the dead end of 43 1/2 Street near the Oceanfront.
At about 11 p.m., a 20-year-old woman was in her car in the 300 block of 27th St. when a man with a gun surprised her.
``I was going over to my friend's house on 27th, and I had just pulled up,'' she said. ``I just turned around and he was right there.
``He said, `Gimme your keys and wallet and get out of here.' I just gave him the keys and wallet and went in the house and called police.''
She gave dispatchers a description of the gunman and her car, a 1994 Ford Escort station wagon. Officer Erol Bashekimoglu spotted the Escort as it got onto the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway. He gave chase. The car sped up and exited at Rosemont Road. It led Bashekimoglu and other police cars onto Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Beach police radioed ahead to Norfolk and state police, but the chase quickly wound onto Interstate 264 before other police units could catch up. The car went through the Downtown Tunnel into Portsmouth.
The chase left the interstate on Greenwood Drive and steered into the Cavalier Manor section. Finally, the car ran into a ditch near Cavalier Boulevard and Liston Lane.
Neither man was seriously hurt. Portsmouth police arrived to help Virginia Beach officers.
Carey said police later learned the abandoned pickup had been stolen earlier in Chesapeake.
He said similar robberies have occurred throughout Hampton Roads and at least as far west as Richmond in recent weeks.
Carey praised the victims who called police.
``It's difficult, I know, but we have always advocated that victims try to remain as calm as possible and try to remember as much as possible,'' Carey said. ``Obviously, these subjects did that, and that's what helped us solve this case.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Adrian T. Evans of Portsmouth and a 16-year-old are being held.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY CARJACKING ARREST by CNB