Armed robbery suspects in custody

A rash of armed robberies of Walmart stores in the area ended Tuesday in Holly Springs when officers rammed a late model black Cadillac believed to have been just used in the robbery of the New Albany Walmart.

Sheriff Kenny Dickerson said the suspects, thought to be responsible for the recent armed robbery of Walmart in Holly Springs, had allegedly held up several other stores in the area and were fleeing the New Albany business after that robbery Tuesday.

He said agents with the FBI and Safe Streets Task Force had been tracking the suspects and vehicle used in the armed robbery at the Holly Springs Walmart last week.

The Holly Springs store was held up Wednesday Jan. 6, around 8:30 a.m., Dickerson said, and an estimated $10,000 in cash was taken at gunpoint.

That robbery set off a search covering the North Mississippi and Memphis, Tenn., area. Another robbery occurred at the Walmart store in Senatobia Monday.

The crime spree ended Tuesday in Holly Springs when agents with the FBI rammed the Cadillac Escalade at Circle K gas station across from Huddle House. Dickerson said the suspects were

under surveillance for several days and also at the Walmart store in New Albany when that robbery took place. Federal agents notified the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department and Holly Springs Police Department to be on the lookout for the black Escalade traveling westward from New Albany.

Investigator Perry Pipkin, with the sheriff’s department, waited along I-22 and spotted the black Escalade with tag numbers provided by federal agents, Dickerson said. Almost simultaneously the suspects’ vehicle pulled into the Circle K. A vehicle driven and occupied by federal agents rammed the Escalade on the passenger side and law enforcement surrounded the Cadillac.

The suspects were ordered out of the Escalade and refused, the sheriff said. Officers broke out the glass on the driver’s side of the vehicle and a short time later two suspects were taken into custody without incident and booked at the Marshall County jail.

A 9 mm handgun thought to have been used in the armed robbery in Holly Springs was on the front seat and cash, believed to have been taken from the New Albany store, was scattered on the seat and floor of the vehicle, Dickerson said. The gun had been stolen from a location in Collierville, Tenn., he said.

The sheriff said the driver of the Escalade, Randy Ranoy Readus, 34, of the Memphis, Tenn., area and passenger Julius Alexander Black, 30, of Memphis, were identified as the suspects believed to have been connected to at least three armed robberies of Walmart stores in the last week.

Dickerson said the suspects, who will initially be charged on warrants in connection with the Holly Springs Walmart robbery, will await charges in federal court in Oxford which will include armed robbery and felony fleeing.

The suspects likely will be charged with numerous armed robberies in the MidSouth area taking place in the past weeks, Dickerson said.

“We will preliminary hold the suspects on the local charges until the federal authorities get their complaints that will be filed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” he said. “Then the local warrants will be dropped and federal authorities will assume all procedures moving forward.”

He said himself, officers with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department and Holly Springs Police Department joined federal authorities in the takedown Tuesday morning.