DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708080636

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   62 lines

QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD BECOMING CONCERNED ABOUT SPATE OF CRIME TWO TEEN-AGERS WERE ROBBED AT GUNPOINT IN THEIR BACK YARD IN SUFFOLK SUNDAY.

The placid streets make Lakeside, near downtown, a haven for exercising the dog, strolling at night and chatting with neighbors.

So when two teen-agers were robbed at gunpoint while eating crabs in their back yard Sunday night, it set the community abuzz.

``I've always felt entirely safe in this neighborhood - until Sunday,'' said Causey Avenue resident Susan Jones, whose 16-year-old stepson, M. Wayne Jones Jr., was robbed.

Since July 25, Suffolk detectives believe as many as seven armed robberies and muggings have been committed in the neighborhood by pairs or groups of youths.

Police on Thursday charged a 16-year-old Suffolk youth with two counts of armed robbery, using a firearm during a felony and possessing a sawed-off shotgun in connection with two armed robberies Aug. 1, on nearby St. James Avenue and W. Washington Street.

A second suspect is being investigated, Police Lt. Wally M. Bunker said.

Police are trying to determine whether the two youths were involved with several other crimes, including the robbery in Susan Jones' back yard, Bunker said.

Residents are pleased with the police work but are concerned that their quiet neighborhood has become a target of crime.

``We have had problems in the past, but none of them as serious as this,'' said Stephen R. Jackson, a Lakeside resident and president of the West End Neighborhood Association, which takes in about half of Lakeside.

Occasionally, he added, the neighborhood has been a target for car thieves and break-ins.

``As bad as it is to have property crimes, no one is going to get hurt physically,'' Jackson said.

Wayne Jones was forced onto the ground and robbed of $28 by three men armed with a .22-caliber rifle after he and a neighborhood friend went outdoors to a picnic table to eat crabs. Susan Jones sent them outside because she didn't want them to mess up the kitchen.

She heard two pops and thought somebody set off fireworks.

She was about to walk outside her den and tell the teen-agers to quiet down when they rushed in the door and said breathlessly, ``We've been robbed.''

One of the shots smashed through a window and lodged in the ceiling of her den.

About 10 minutes later, a 58-year-old man was robbed by three young men in the 100 block of West Washington Street. Police believe the same group was involved in both incidents.

Susan Jones has called neighbors and urged them to be more cautious when walking alone. ``I'm angry now,'' she said. ``It makes you look at things differently.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Map

Lakeside neighborhood

For complete copy, see microfilm

Graphic

TO HELP Anyone with more information about the robberies may call

the Suffolk Crime Line at 539-1222. KEYWORDS: ROBBERY

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