Robbers ran over woman after she withdrew $75,000. It was an inside job, Texas cops say
Two robbers violently attacked a woman at a Houston gas station just after she got out of her car, surveillance video released last week shows.
Now investigators believe the attempted heist of the $75,000 she had in her purse on Friday was an inside job.
“There was someone inside the bank, an employee at the bank, that was possibly involved in this, and we will be getting a warrant for her arrest,” Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman told KPRC.
Late Tuesday afternoon, police arrested a third suspect in the case, an employee of the Wallis State Bank of FM Road 1960 in Houston where the woman withdrew the $75,000, just minutes before she was attacked and run over by another of the three suspects at the gas station where the victim runs a check-cashing business, according to a statement from Herman released on Facebook.
“All the pieces to this investigation are falling into place and we anticipate filing more criminal charges on others we believe to be involved,” Herman said in the statement, adding that the latest suspect, 25-year-old Shelby Taylor Wyse, “has direct ties to one of the suspects already under arrest for this violent robbery.”
She is dating one of the two suspects arrested before her in the case, KTRK reported.
Davis Dowell Mitchell, 31, was arrested at the scene Friday after one of Herman’s deputies saw the attack unfold in the parking lot of the Valero along U.S. 290 in northwest Houston, McClatchy reported. He is being held on charges of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, with no bond, according to jail records.
Authorities identified Mitchell as the first attacker in the video, who jumped out of an SUV and began to beat the victim in the parking lot while trying to wrestle her purse from her.
Another suspect, 27-year-old Travonn Johnson, turned himself in Monday after surveillance video from the gas station was circulated by Herman and picked up by media outlets across the country. Johnson is also being held with no bond on a charge of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, after police say he fled the scene in a Chrysler 300 after running the victim over as the constable’s deputy approached.
Authorities believe Wyse was working at the bank on Friday and tipped Mitchell and/or Johnson off after the woman made the $75,000 withdrawal, KHOU reported. It’s a scheme called “jugging,” a slang term for robberies targeting bank and ATM customers.
“They follow you from the bank to another location then break into your car to get the money, or if that won’t work they rob you,” Houston Police Sgt. Arturo Bazan told KPRC in 2013.
Authorities are still looking for a fourth suspect in the violent robbery, the person who drove the SUV Mitchell got out of before initially attacking the victim, KTRK reported.
This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 8:05 AM with the headline "Robbers ran over woman after she withdrew $75,000. It was an inside job, Texas cops say."