Little Rock police arrested members of at least two robbery crews last month as the number of robberies in the city reached a yearlong high, jumping 30% from September.
Violent crime tends to spike in the summer months, but police think that two groups -- one targeting mostly Game X Change locations and the other robbing restaurants and gas stations -- contributed to the 60 robberies the department investigated in October, Little Rock Police Department Sgt. Eric Barnes said.
"We had multiple groups that were going out and doing those," Barnes said.
Police investigated 46 robberies in September, up from 32 in August and similar to the 41 in July, according to data provided by Barnes.
Officers arrested two men, 19-year-old Ronald Jones and 20-year-old Bishop Johnson, on Oct. 12, charging them in the aggravated robbery of the Game X Change at 301 S. Bowman Road earlier that evening, according to arrest reports. The two were also charged in aggravated robbery at the same store Oct. 4 and at the South University Avenue Game X Change on Oct. 9.
Jones and Johnson's arrest has not totally solved the problem, Barnes said, as the game stores have been robbed again since then, though it was not immediately apparent when.
Barnes could not say for certain why the stores are so frequently robbed, but suggested that the suspects thought the valuable electronics would turn a quick profit, he said.
"I could see the potential for them to be making money," Barnes said.
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Later in the month, on Oct. 28, police arrested Kenny Billups, 31, after an armed robbery at a gas station on Colonel Glenn Road where Billups exchanged gunfire with a bystander whose mother he had tried to rob, according to a police report.
Billups was charged with at least three felony aggravated robbery charges, detention records indicate. A report from Nov. 15 mentions a second suspect who aided Billups in robbing a Waffle House at 201 North Shackleford Road, but does not identify the suspect, and Barnes could not immediately say whether Billups' accomplice had been arrested.
In the Waffle House robbery, Billups is charged with stealing a gun from a security guard that he used in other robberies that was in his possession when he was arrested, according to the report.
The arrests of the robbery crews should help contribute to lowering the number of robberies this month, Barnes said.
"We're hoping that will turn those numbers back down," he said.
As of Nov. 18, police had investigated 20 robberies in Little Rock this month.
Police often increase patrols near businesses that are frequently targets of robberies, Barnes said. Sometimes, marked police vehicles will be placed outside of these businesses as a deterrent during times when robberies have occurred in the past. Plainclothes officers might also be used to catch robbers at these businesses.