Ronald Epps Turns Himself In
Ronald Jermaine Epps, the 38-year-old man wanted for stealing a parked vehicle with a baby inside, has turned himself in to Greenville County Sheriff’s deputies.
Investigators have been talking to people that knew Epps over the past few days, urging them to get Epps to turn himself in. Epps is charged with kidnapping and grand larceny. He is currently being questioned by investigators at the Greenville Law Enforcement Center.
Video surveillance and witness accounts led investigators to take out warrants for Epps on Tuesday. The crime occurred in the early hours of Monday morning when a woman left her granddaughter in her running truck while she went to get coffee at the Spinx station at 1520 S. Pleasantburg Drive. The child was returned to her family unharmed.
Ronald Epps Wanted for Greenville Kidnapping & Auto Theft
The man suspected of stealing a truck with a 10-month-old baby inside has been identified by the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office as Ronald Jermaine Epps, 38.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Monday morning when the baby’s grandmother stopped her truck to get coffee at the Spinx station at 1520 S. Pleasantburg Drive. While she was in the store, the running truck was stolen with the baby inside.
The child was recovered unharmed, but deputies are still searching for Epps, who they identified based on surveillance footage and witness statements. He faces kidnapping and grand larceny charges, according to warrants. Please call Crime Stoppers at 23-CRIME if you have any information.
Shooting Follows Fight at Club La Roka
A fight at Club La Roka on Pleasantburg Drive may have led to a shooting a few miles away. An injured man was found by Greenville police in the Cleveland Court professional park at around 4 a.m. Monday morning. Fox Carolina reports:
Investigators said that a fight at Club La Roca [sic] on South Pleasantburg Drive may have happened a few minutes before the shooting.
Police searched for evidence in an area near the intersection of Highway 291 and Cleveland Street for several hours.
The name of the person who was shot was not released.
Sunday nights at Club La Roka are dedicated to the hip-hop scene, according to the nightclub’s MySpace profile, last updated on Nov. 21. The profile states:
Aight, now for my hood niggaz…Sunday nights…it’s going down at La Roka…straight Hip-Hop! All the hot hip-hop music that’s out there… we playin’ it! Doors open at 10pm, and they don’t close till’ 4am…free till’ 11pm.
Club La Roka, located at the corner of Mauldin Road and Pleasantburg Drive, was the scene of a July 2009 shooting that injured Robert James Moore Jr., 31.
Man Robbed at Gunpoint at Pleasantburg Drive ATM
An ATM at the Publix supermarket on Pleasantburg Drive was the site of an armed robbery last Friday.
The incident happened last Friday at the Publix grocery store on Pleasantburg Drive. Police say the man went to the ATM just before 11 pm to withdraw some cash from his account when two men approached him, pointed a gun at him, demanded the money and took off with $180. The man ran across the street and called 911.
“This guy is not small,“ said Greenville Police spokesman, Jason Rampey, referring to surveillance video retrieved from the scene. “He’s a big guy and capable of defending himself. But, he’s outnumbered and these guys have a firearm, so it’s best to give em’ what they want.“
Greenville Police are seeking two suspects who they describe as black males. One wore a black hoodie with white lettering on the hood and the second suspect wore a white sweatshirt with a black design.
GreenvilleOnline.com: Gun Wielding Everyman Charmingly Bungles Two Armed Robberies
But he did get away with a red 2001 Ford Taurus. Unfortunately for Greenville County residents who want to be on the lookout for this everyman in a red 2001 Ford Taurus, Greenville News reporter Paul Alongi doesn’t think journalistic minutiae like a description of the criminal are worth his time. He also paints a picture of a puckish rogue who’s more a source of amusement than danger in some of the worst crime reporting I’ve seen in a long time:
Employees at two pay day lending stores near each other in Greenville told police on Tuesday that a gunman demanded money from them, but he ran into a problem.
Neither business had any cash on hand, officers wrote in incident reports.
[...]
The employee in first incident told police that the gunman said she was going to have to give him something, so she offered up the keys to her red 2001 Ford Taurus, an officer wrote.
[...]
The employee in the second incident told police that the gunman asked, “How do you give out loans if you don’t have any cash?” She told the gunman that the business gives out checks only, the officer wrote.
No injuries were reported.
Oh ho! Good spirited chicanery of the sort Robin Hood and his merry band of rapscallions would indulge in I’m sure.
News Channel 7 paints a somewhat different picture of the events, and provides readers with both a description and a picture:
According to incident reports, the first robbery was at First American Cash at 347 South Pleasantburg Drive in Greenville around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The victim says, the man camed to the door when it was still locked, saying he needed a money gram.
She let him in, and he pulled out a gun and demanded money.
The suspect said, “Sorry sweetie I gotta do this.“
The victim opened the drawer to show him it was empty, but he told her she was going to have to give him something.
When the victim gave the suspect her keys he pointed the gun at her again and yelled for her to lay down flat on the floor.
So she didn’t merely offer up her keys to the man as an act of charity? Why that’s not what Paul Alongi said. And his report lacks the details that would make the gunman seem menacing. Interesting. The Channel 7 report continues:
The suspect is described as a black male, 25-30 years old, wearing a dark colored jacket with white trim.
On surveillance video he was wearing a black baseball cap and a pair of dark sunglasses.
Oh look! A description of the criminal. That will come in handy to anyone who might run into the suspect or know something. I guess The Greenvile News doesn’t think giving information to the community that the police think may help solve a crime is the job of their reporters.
And what about that delightful exchange with the second victim that Alongi makes sound like a scene from a sitcom? Here’s the way News Channel 7 lays it out:
The victim told him she did not have any cash at the business and she opened up the drawers to show him she did not have anything.
The subject said, “Well how do you give out loans if you don’t have any cash?“
The victim explained that they only give out checks.
The suspect got angry, told her to get down on the floor, and then left.
I imagine a woman being told to lie down on the floor by an angry gunman who wasn’t able to get what he wanted wouldn’t find the scene so delightful. But then again, I’m not a reporter for the The Greenville News.