PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man and woman suspected of robbing a convenience store Wednesday morning were taken into custody by Portland police.
Leon D. Vaughn Jr., 29, and Chelsea C. Grey, 25, were booked in the Multnomah County Detention Center on second-degree robbery and first-degree theft charges.
Officers were able to obtain a search warrant for an apartment in the 2100 block of Southeast 92nd Avenue. The two suspects were taken into custody around 1 p.m. after initially refusing to come out of the apartment.
While the search was ongoing, residents in Portland’s Hazelwood neighborhood were urged to shelter in place before the suspects were taken into custody. The neighborhood was locked down for several hours.
Shortly after 6:30 a.m., officers responded to a reported robbery at a convenience store on Southeast Division Street. At the scene, the store employee told officers that two people with guns robbed the store before running away.
The suspects were later seen by officers but managed to flee again.
Authorities then swarmed the area to set up a perimeter from Southeast 96th Avenue to Southeast 101st Avenue and Southeast Lincoln Street to Southeast Caruthers Street.
“Anytime we have someone in the blocks who is hiding and we believe them to be armed, this is the protocol that we put in place,” said Sgt. Kevin Allen. “It’s really important that we get our tactical team here; they’re the ones trained here for this sort of thing. What they do is just a very careful, slow, methodical search to try to minimize the chance of that anyone could be injured.”
No one has been reported injured.
Creative Science School and Harrison Park School were told to secure their perimeters.
A Portland Public Schools spokesperson told KOIN 6 that “all of our students are safe and classes are operating as usual.”
PPB’s Major Crimes Unit is investigating, while multiple PPB units and the Gresham Police Department responded to help in the search.
“This is what we want, no one injured, suspects in custody, people going to jail and facing charges for crimes they committed,” Allen said.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to e-mail crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, attention: Major Crimes Unit and reference case number 23-29469.
A KOIN 6 has a crew at the scene to learn more.