One of three Du Quoin Shell station robbery suspects is in custody
Two of three suspects in an attempted armed robbery Friday afternoon at the Shell gas mart in Du Quoin remain at large while an attendant who was struck in the head during the altercation remained on sick leave Sunday.
One man, identified as Jeremy L. Shered, 26 of Centralia and Carbondale, was arrested and remains in custody at the Perry County Jail. Du Quoin Chief of Police Jamie Ellermeyer said evidence at the scene led police to Shered.
Three male subjects entered the gas mart at the corner of West Main and Hickory streets at about 2:05 p.m. and approached the station attendant from behind.
The men displayed a handgun and demanded money from the cash register.
The suspect struck the attendant with the handgun, causing injury. All three suspects left the area on foot.
Shered was arrested in Carbondale for armed robbery (accountability), according to a release issued by the Du Quoin Police Department.
It is known that the business is protected by a video surveillance camera, but it is not known if that video from the camera or some other evidence led to Shered's arrest.
Carbondale Police assisted in Shered's arrest.
Du Quoin Police Chief Jamie Ellermeyer requests anyone who knows anything about the incident to contact the Du Quoin Police at 618-542-2131.
This attempted armed robbery was the latest in a string of robberies.
A 29-year-old Cairo, Illinois, man faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with an armed robbery Thursday that left two people dead and another hospitalized.
Authorities arrested James Nathaniel Watts about 9 p.m. Thursday after a standoff near a railroad trestle spanning the Ohio River, according to an affidavit filed Friday in federal court in Benton.
The standoff followed a high-speed chase involving a car stolen from a bank a man had attempted to rob, the affidavit stated.
The suspect approached three female employees as they left the bank after closing and forced them back into the bank in an attempt to rob it. He was unable to obtain any money because the bank was closed. Surveillance video showed the suspect take the employees' purses, place them in an employee's vehicle and leave in the stolen vehicle, the affidavit stated.
Police spotted the vehicle about 6:55 p.m. Thursday and pursued it, at speeds over 100 mph, before the driver -- later identified as Watts -- abandoned the vehicle near the railroad trestle, fled on foot and tried to hide in the structure of the trestle, where officers arrested him after a two-hour standoff, the affidavit stated.
On May 13 there was an armed robbery at Old National Bank, 1709 Walnut Street in Murphysboro. The employees reported two masked black male subjects entered the bank, displayed a handgun and demanded money.
The suspects are described as black males,16 to 20 years of age, 5'7 to 5'11, 160 to 180 pounds in all dark clothing. The suspects left the bank southbound on foot with an undetermined amount of money. It is the second armed robbery at that bank.