Law enforcers and first responders from five local departments have collaborated in the location and arrest of a Centerville man within a day of an armed robbery in Richmond.
Their shared effort began a few minutes after noon Tuesday, Aug. 27, officers were dispatched to the 600 block of North Eighth Street in Richmond after an armed robbery was reported.
Capt. Curt Leverton of RPD’s Investigative Services Division said officers quickly arrived in the area and began to search for the suspect.
He was described as a male wearing a black ski mask, camouflage jacket, dark pants and white tennis shoes. Leverton said the suspect was armed during the incident, but no injuries were reported.
The suspect was last seen headed in the direction of the Whitewater Gorge.
Law enforcers from multiple agencies looked around the area for approximately 1 ½ hours without locating the suspect, he said. During the search, officers learned the suspect might have changed clothes.
Later on Tuesday, Andrew James Allen, 38, of Watt Road in Centerville, was located in the area of Test Road and Abington Pike, where he was arrested by the sheriff’s department on two warrants. Allen was booked into the Wayne County Jail at 9:45 p.m. Tuesday. Jail records show he faces a charge of possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, and a hold for another jurisdiction.
After Allen’s arrest, RPD continued to review the evidence, and Leverton said it was determined that Allen was a suspect in the robbery.
Thus, RPD arrested Allen in the jail on Wednesday on preliminary charges – two counts of robbery and two counts of criminal confinement. Those charges are both Level 3 felonies.
“This apprehension was the result of a combined effort of agencies working together,” Leverton said in a news release.
In addition to RPD and the sheriff’s department, assistance came from Centerville Police Department, Indiana State Police, Richmond Fire Department, which oversees a drone donated by Wayne Bank for various emergency needs around the county, and K9s from both RPD and WCSD.