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- Pair stages afternoon store robbery
by Clay Bailey, Democrat Staff Writer
Some robbers work by stealth, hoping that their crime will go undetected. However, a recent robbery occurred during the middle of the afternoon inside a large grocery store. The robbery is the subject of this week's edition of Crime Stoppers. About 3 p.m. last Sunday, two men entered the Weingarten's supermarket near the intersection of Asher and University avenues. The two reportedly shopped for a short time until there was a "lull" in the checkout lines of the store. At that point, the two walked to one of the cash registers, where one of them asked for a pack of cigarettes. When the clerk turned around, the other man reached to a cash register in an adjacent aisle, turned the key and opened the machine. The man reached into the cash drawer and took an unknown amount of cash, and then fled from the store with the other man. The cashier began following the pair out of the store and screaming about the holdup. This drew the attention of two employees. The two employees ran after one of the suspects who was fleeing toward a 1969 Cadillac with Louisiana license plates. The car was occupied by two or three children. The employees tried to hinder the suspect's escape by blocking the path with shopping carts. One employee shoved a cart behind the car, but when the other employee, James Hudman, tried to move a cart in front of the vehicle, the suspect struck the employee with the vehicle. Hudman bounced off the hood of the car and it sped away northbound on University Avenue. The car later was found abandoned in the 1900 block of 23rd Street. The other suspect was last seen walking east away from the store. Crime Stoppers, in association with Arkansas Citizens Concerned about Crime, will pay a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information . . . .
Manager hit by car after theft
A man took money from a grocery store cash register and then hit the store manager with a Cadillac as the manager tried to block the suspect's escape Sunday afternoon, Little Rock police said. Police later recovered the getaway car, which had Louisiana license plates, abandoned in the 1900 block of 23rd Street. A witness to the hit-and-run incident told the Democrat in a telephone interview that he saw a man run from Weingarten's grocery, Asher and University, to a blue Cadillac. The witness said another man tried to shove a grocery cart in front of the moving Cadillac. However, the car hit the man and knocked him onto the hood. The witness said he saw the incident form his vehicle and that he was pursued the getaway car as it sped out of the parking lot. But the getaway car "was flying along," and he could not keep up with it, the witness, a young Little Rock man, said. Jim Arnold Hudman, 23, of 9508 Nolen Drive, the store manager, told police he pursued the suspect onto the parking lot after being alerted by a cashier. Police reported Hudman got in front of the getaway car, was hit, then hit a second time as he bounced onto the hood and down to the pavement, according to the police report. Police said Hudman was slightly injured and refused medical treatment. Police said the suspect was a black male in his early 30s, about 6 feet, 220 pounds. A cashier sold police another black male, in his 30s about 5 foot 10, may have tried to distract her by asking for cigarettes while the first man opened the unattended cash register. The two men left the store together, but the small suspect did not get in the car with the other man, according to the police report.
Victim's bad luck
The bad luck of Jim Arnold Hudman, 23, of 9508 Nolen Drive continued Tuesday morning when he received a minor injury while helping re-enact a robbery that occurred Sunday for the Little Rock Police Department Crimestoppers program. Hudman, a manager at the Weingarten's store at Asher and University avenues, was struck by the car of a robbery suspect Sunday. Two men came into the store, and while one distracted a cashier by asking for some cigarettes, the other man reportedly opened a cash register and took money from it. Hudman chased after the men and was struck by their getaway car in the store's parking lot. Hudman volunteered to help re-enact the crime for Crimestoppers, and received a minor cut over one eye about 11 a.m. Tuesday while filming the final scene of the program, which will be shown on KATV-TV, Channel 7, tonight. The segment was being filmed at the store where it occurred. While filming, Hudman rolled over the hood of a car driven by police cadet James Arnold, and struck his head against the rear bumper. Arnold was playing the part of one of the suspects. Crimestoppers coordinator Bill Spencer, a Little Rock police patrolman, immediately took Hudman to the St. Vincent Infirmary emergency room for treatment. Also during the filming, a man who apparently did not realize that a Crimestoppers program was being filmed attempted to apprehend a "suspect." Spencer said the man thought Arnold was a real robber and "made some effort to assit" in apprehending the "criminal." Although the man was somewhat embarrassed when he learned of his mistake, Spencer said the incident was exemplary of "people becoming bolder in assisting the police." Spencer said public awareness of crime has increased and has proven beneficial to the Crimestoppers program.
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1930 - 2012 (82 years)
