An armed holdup of a Northeast Baltimore check-cashing service ended yesterday with three arrests and no injuries after a three-hour standoff that shut down Pulaski Highway for most of the morning, city police said.
One suspect was arrested after he ran out of American Cash Express in the 5900 block of Pulaski Highway. Officers said they pulled a second suspect from a ceiling where he had hidden.
The third suspect surrendered after the standoff.
The incident began about 8:30 a.m., police said, when three men accosted a female clerk as she opened for business. She pushed a holdup alarm, police said, and officers responded immediately.
As police ran into the store, the woman and one of the suspects ran out. He was caught two blocks away by Officers Jeff Humphreys and Matt Logue.
A few minutes later, Sgt. John N. Sturgeon and Officer Louis J. Averella Jr. pulled the second man from his hiding place in the ceiling.
Police said the third man was in the back of the store. Officers called for the Quick Response Team, which shut Pulaski Highway and tried to negotiate with the man. Police said he would not come to the phone, but surrendered about 11:30 a.m.
Police said they recovered a handgun.
Melvin Thurman, 17, of the 1600 block of McKean Ave., Lawrence Craig Thornton, 28, of the 500 block of N. Luzerne Ave. and Eric Alexander Harris, 24, of the 4900 block of Greencrest Road, all in Baltimore, were charged with armed robbery, police said.
