INDIANAPOLIS — New court documents reveal how IMPD tracked down three men they say are responsible for an attempted armored car robbery on the east side of Indianapolis.
Around 7:50 a.m. on Nov. 21, a Brinks armored car driver was opening an ATM at the Chase bank in the 8800 block of Southeastern Avenue, near the intersection with South Franklin Road. The driver said two men in masks ran up and pointed a gun at him.
"Keep your hands up, don't move," one of the robbers said, according to the driver. The first robber then told the other robber "get his gun and key fob."
The driver said as soon as the men had his gun and key fob, he took of running looking for someone who could call 911.
(NOTE: The video at the top of this story is from before the arrests were made).
Help from a brave witness
While police were responding to the scene, 911 dispatch reported a call from a witness. The caller, a man, said he had seen the robbery and was currently following the suspects. The man followed the suspects, who were in a maroon Dodge Magnum.
At the intersection of Vandergriff Road and Pentecost Road, just across I-74 from the robbery, the caller saw the Dodge Magnum stop. The robbers got out and climbed into a white Ford Taurus. The caller followed the Ford to the intersection of Washington Street and Franklin Road. That's where two IMPD cruisers tried to stop the car.
Police chased the Ford to the intersection of Franklin Road and Brookville Road, where they lost sight of it. The spotted it again turning north onto Arlington Avenue from Brookville Road, where they lost sight again.
Another officer then reported seeing the Ford crashed in the front yard of a home near the intersection of Arlington Avenue and Washington Street. There was no one inside the car, so police set up a perimeter and started searching.
Catching the first two suspects
Around 8:20 a.m., a half hour after the robbery, two IMPD officers saw a man running around the Irvington Loft apartment building.
Police say that when the man saw the police, he stopped running and pulled out his cellphone. Police stopped him and say they found a black mask and gloves in the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. He was identified as Lonnie McGill III.
One of the officers with McGill called in that an address in the 500 block of Dearborn Avenue was in the GPS of McGill's phone. Undercover IMPD officers went to the address in unmarked vehicles to stake it out.
A 911 caller reported a suspicious person at a home on Julian Avenue.
Uniformed officers arrived at the Dearborn Avenue address and started using a drone. The drone found footprints between the Julian Avenue home and the Dearborn Avenue address.
Officers started making announcements in English and Spanish from the speaker system on a marked car.
After a short period of time, a man shouted "I'm coming out!"
A man came out from the garage behind the Julian Avenue home. He was taken into custody and identified as Vantez Porter.
Police weren't the only ones searching
IMPD officers with the Violent Crimes Unit reported two women leaving the Dearborn Avenue address. The women left the scene in a Hyundai Sonata and drove to the area of Arlington Avenue where the Ford Taurus had crashed.
Police say the Sonata drove around the area where the robbers and had crashed and then left.
Police pulled over the car and spoke to the two women inside.
The women said they had gotten back to the Dearborn Avenue home around 7 a.m. One of the women said her son was at the home with his two children. She said that a white car pulled up to the home with two men inside. She recognized one of them as a man she knew only as "Tre." The woman said her son left with Tre and the other man.
The woman told police that she saw the armored car robbery on the news and thought her son may have been involved, so she went to the scene where the news reporting the crash happened.
Two days later, on Nov. 23, the woman called police to say her son wanted to turn himself in for his involvement with the armored car robbery.
(NOTE: 13News has a policy of not naming suspects who have not been formally charged).
One of the suspects talks to police
Police say Vantez Porter confessed to being the lookout for the robbery. Porter allegedly told police he was the driver of the White Ford.
According to court documents, he told police he knew the other two suspects only as "Dillon" and "John."
Police say Porter followed the other suspects who were in the Dodge until they dumped the vehicle. Porter allegedly said he crashed on Arlington Avenue because of the slick roads.
Detectives asked how the suspects picked the location to rob the armored car.
Porter allegedly said, "Someone had been watching and knew the armored vehicle would be there at that time."
According to police, Porter said he would be paid $5,000 for his role in the robbery as lookout.
Police asked if the other men were armed.
Porter reportedly said "I didn't see anyone with a gun believed at least one of the other two were armed since they were going to rob and armed guard in an armored car."
Vantez Porter is charged with armed robbery and resisting law enforcement.
Lonnie McGill III is charged with armed robbery, resisting law enforcement, dangerous possession of a firearm and unlawful carrying of a handgun.
Formal charges have not been filed against the third suspect.