Starkville police are investigating a series of convenience store robberies, beginning in late February, which is part of a larger chain of robberies that has occurred throughout Oktibbeha County.
A total of six convenience stores in Starkville have been robbed since February, police detective Chadd Garnett said. These include Highway 82 Package Store, SOCO convenience store on Russell Street, Sprint Mart on Miss. Highway 12, New Lite Grocery, B-Quik on North Montgomery and the Parrish BP, which is the most recent.
Wesley Parrish, owner of Parrish BP, said he was not present when the robbery occurred at his store March 25. He received a call from his wife at about 8:30 p.m. She said the clerk who was working had just notified her of the robbery.
“He fired his gun behind the counter,” Parrish said. The robber used this to force the clerk to lie down, he added.
Parrish complimented the clerk working. He said she handled the situation well, even though she was at gunpoint.
“She worked the next day,” Parrish added.
While the police were still at his store collecting information, they received a call about a store in Columbus that had been robbed about an hour after the Parrish BP robbery, Parrish said.
The police determined that each robbery is related because of the method used during the hold-ups.
The robberies usually occurred in this manner: the man entered the store and went to the back, then picked up a soft drink and walked to the front counter-acting as if he was going to purchase the drink, Lt. Troy Outlaw of the Starkville Police Department said.
“When the cashier would open the register, he would reach in and also display his gun,” Outlaw said.
Each time, the incident would take only minutes, and then the man would be gone. The robberies usually occurred between 6:30 and 10:30 p.m.
The suspect is described as a black man with a slender build, who is about 5-foot-8 or 5-foot-9, and he usually wears a dark toboggan. He wears the toboggan close around his eyebrows.
“It makes it hard to identify him,” Outlaw said.
The police have a possible description of a car that the man used during the robbery of the New Lite grocery. His car is described as a blue, early-1990 model Chevy Lumina with a red stripe, Garnett said.
The police arrested suspect Quentin Lamar Ware, 17, who was picked after the police received information about him. He was then picked from a line up by one of the victims. However, another robbery occurred while he was in custody, Outlaw said.
“We released him, but he’ll have to officially be exonerated through the justice court,” Outlaw added.
The police are currently releasing information to the available media outlets in hopes of acquiring leads in the investigation, Garnett said.
“We’ve released everything we have,” Garnett said.
Parrish is taking extra precautions at night by having two people present. The police are also making extra patrols, but the man is still at large, Parrish said.
“We’re wary of it; he certainly could do it again,” Parrish said.
Anyone with information concerning the reported armed robberies is encouraged to call the Starkville Police Department at 323-4131, the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department at 323-2421 or Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers at 1-800-530-7151.