Parole absconder held in holdups of 10 in an hour

A parole absconder was charged in multiple robberies. The locations and police response time are shown on this map.
A parole absconder was charged in multiple robberies. The locations and police response time are shown on this map.

Little Rock police late Tuesday arrested a parole absconder accused of robbing 13 people at gunpoint over the past two weeks.

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Police said Steven O'Neal Turner, 33, held up 10 of those people Saturday night in a one-hour span that left officers scrambling to respond.

Turner is accused of being the man who stole keys, cellphones, hundreds of dollars in cash and a Dodge Ram pickup before crashing and fleeing on foot.

The department publicly identified Turner as a suspect Monday. He surrendered about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Turner was charged with 13 counts of aggravated robbery and theft of property. He was additionally charged with four counts of kidnapping, as police said some of the victims were abducted.

Police connected Turner to two holdups in the area of West Markham Street and South University Avenue.

Leonard Brewster, 34, told officers he gave a man a ride from McDonald's at 104 S. University Ave. the night of July 8. The man pulled a gun and forced him to drive to a bank and withdraw cash.

Police returned to the area four days later after Jose Ramirez, 26, said a man had confronted him at gunpoint in a parking garage at 420 S. University Ave. Ramirez said the man took his money, drove him downtown and fled on foot.

Ramirez provided a description of his abductor that later helped investigators develop Turner as a suspect. He noted that the man had teardrop tattoos under his eyes.

Friday morning, police responded to a call at 900 S. Cedar St. Edgar Easley, 18, said he'd been waiting at a bus stop when a man with teardrop tattoos abducted him, drove him to a bank and forced him to withdraw money, a police report states.

A bank surveillance camera recorded Turner during the robbery, according to police.

Saturday night, a man matching Turner's description stole a red Dodge Ram at gunpoint from Larry Moore, 48, after Moore gave the man a ride, police reported. By the time officers spoke to Moore at 10:57 p.m., the pickup had been used in the robberies of nine other people.

Three people were held up shortly after 10 p.m. in the area of 1200 Main St. by a man who fled in a red Dodge Ram, according to a police report. The pickup was seen 15 minutes later at the intersection of West Roosevelt Road and South Arch Street.

Witnesses said a man with teardrop tattoos drove up in the vehicle and robbed three people in a KFC parking lot. The man then crossed the street and robbed three other people in the parking lot of Jerky's Spicy Chicken, according to police.

One of the victims, Marcus Thurman, 33, said he followed the pickup about 1.6 miles north to West 12th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where the robber crashed and ran away. Police impounded the vehicle as evidence.

Police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan, a 20-year veteran of the department, said he'd never seen a string of robberies like the one Saturday night.

"We don't have one person hit 10 people in an hour. That just doesn't happen," he said.

Police in the department's downtown division were investigating the city's 17th homicide of the year -- a fatal shooting at 1624 S. Cedar St. in which Marquese Deshaun Gray, 16, was arrested -- when robbery calls poured in, McClanahan said. Supervisors instructed officers to work overtime in response.

"We had all these robberies occurring. We had a homicide. You know, you just can't leave. You've got to secure that scene," McClanahan said.

Police were again flooded by calls when the department on Monday posted Turner's photo on Twitter. The image came from a bank surveillance camera.

Detectives heard from "a whole bunch" of people who recognized Turner and his distinctive teardrop tattoos, according to McClanahan. The tweet had been viewed more than 6,700 times by the time Turner surrendered Tuesday night.

"From a social media standpoint, it's a very successful story ... We want to inform the public, and we depend on the public to help us solve crimes," McClanahan said, noting that the department has greatly increased its Web presence recently.

Turner provided a statement to detectives after his surrender, but McClanahan declined to provide details of that statement.

Turner, who was convicted of possession of a firearm by certain persons in January 2014, had been released from prison on parole in April. Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Dina Tyler said Turner went off the radar a few weeks later. The department reported him as an absconder May 28.

"He showed up for his first meeting with the parole office, but he didn't come to his second, or any one after," Tyler said.

Turner was convicted of false imprisonment and aggravated assault after he broke into an apartment and held a resident at knifepoint in 2007, Pulaski County court records show.

He was convicted of terroristic threatening in Lonoke County in 1999.

Turner, who was last known to reside at 103 Walker St. in England, was being held in the Pulaski County jail Wednesday.

Metro on 07/23/2015

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