Suspect in custody after standoff following robbery of Greenville store

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Greenville police had a suspect in custody on Saturday following a brief standoff where officials said he set a camper on fire and robbed a store that led to part of Memorial Drive/NC Hwy. 33 being blocked off.

UPDATE: Suspect named, charges released

Police initially responded to Colony Tire at 110 Dautridge Drive, just after 2:30 p.m. WNCT’s Davis Suppes spoke with Lt. David Bowen, the active watch commander with the Greenville Police Department. He said police responded to “an initial report of an arson in progress, where someone was pouring gasoline on a camper that’s over beside the road.”

He said a bystander called it in and was trying to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, according to WNCT’s Sarah Gray Barr.

Upon their arrival, another bystander told police that someone had just robbed The Fuel Doc nearby. They were in a white pickup truck and believed it was the same person who set the camper on fire.

(Davis Suppes, WNCT video)

Bowen said the white pickup truck tried to elude police before crashing and coming to a stop in a field. They believed the suspect, a white male, was armed after seeing a handgun.

After about an hour of negotiations with the suspect, police took him into custody and sent him to ECU Health Medical Center to be evaluated before he was arrested. Charges were pending Saturday evening. The name of the suspect had not been released as of 6 p.m. Saturday.

Memorial Drive/Hwy. 33 soon reopened. Barr reports that Greenville police said the white pickup truck was reported stolen out of Vermont. A tow truck eventually took the vehicle away from the field where it had crashed.

The Greenville Police Department thanked the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office, NC State Highway Patrol and ECU Health Police for their assistance.

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