Three men arrested after chase in another coin truck robbery

Keith Paul

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

A Metro Police detective fired two shotgun blasts at a gunman who had just pistol-whipped a coin truck driver during an apparent robbery Wednesday night.

The shotgun blasts missed the gunman, but hit the car he got into and fled with two other suspects. After a short chase, the three men were arrested at about 10 p.m. in the area of an apartment complex in the the 2800 block of Decatur Boulevard, police said.

Stephan Blaylock, 18, Michael Glenn, 25, and Tony Taylor, 21, were charged with robbery with a weapon and conspiracy. Taylor had been released from prison in July after serving time for a coin truck robbery conviction, Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said.

Repeat offenders unit detectives had been following the three men Wednesday night. Robbery detectives identified them as suspects in the string of coin truck robberies that have plagued the area for about a year.

Two of the three suspects got out of the car after parking in an alley next to the New York City bar at Spring Mountain Road and Jones Boulevard. They walked toward a coin truck parked in front of the bar, police said. Blaylock is accused of hitting the driver with a semi-automatic handgun.

"The detectives saw the suspect pistol whipping the driver. The detectives moved in to help the driver," Flynn said. "The suspects ran back to the car and the one with the gun turned toward the officer."

That's when the detective fired two shots. The name of the detective was not released this morning. It is Metro's policy not to release the identity of an officer involved in a shooting for 48 hours. The coin truck driver was not severely injured, police said.

Robbery detectives suspected the men were connected to as many as 10 coin truck robberies in the area and they also have gang affiliations, Metro robbery Lt. John Alamshaw said.

"We set up the surveillance on these guys. The other night we were watching them, they didn't do anything," Alamshaw said.

But Wednesday night the detectives watched as the three men drove around town.

"It looked like they were looking for an opportunity," Flynn said.

In the past two weeks squads of detectives from the repeat offender, robbery and gang units have been watching suspects in an effort to catch coin truck robbers, Flynn said.

In many of the recent coin truck robberies, two robbers approach a coin truck driver, force him into the back of the truck, drive to another location and rob the truck before fleeing in a waiting car.

With the three men in custody, Alamshaw said he thinks the number of coin truck robberies will decrease.

"We believe they were involved in a major part of the robberies committed," he said. "But there are still people out there we are looking at" in connection with other coin truck robberies.

The detective who fired the shots was put on routine administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He will have a Use of Force Board hearing -- comprised of four citizens and three officers -- to determine if the shooting was within department guidelines.

Wednesday's shooting was the third Metro officer-involved shooting this month. In the other two shootings, two suspects were hit, but both survived their injuries.