Mobile, Alabama



From the Mobile Register of December 20, 2003

Bystanders assist police in two arrests



Bystanders helped Mobile police make arrests in the recent armed robbery of one restaurant and the attempted theft of a cash register at another restaurant where a person armed with a semiautomatic pistol stopped the would-be thief.



Roy Pope, a soft-spoken computer programmer and restaurant owner, whipped out his .22-caliber pistol Dec. 11 and made a "citizen's arrest" when a man tried to steal a cash register at a Subway restaurant on Dauphin Street downtown.



"Personally, I feel like I did what needed to be done," the 37-year-old man said Thursday. "We need more people out there to protect the neighborhood. If we had more people who do that, downtown Mobile would be a much better place."

...



Mobile police arrested Jacques Jamal James on Nov. 22 shortly after a man armed with a pistol first robbed a Shell gasoline service station in the 3300 block of Spring Hill Avenue and then a Pizza Hut in the 4300 block of Old Shell Road five minutes later.



James, 20, of Mobile was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and possession of a controlled substance, Gallichant said.



Workers at the Pizza Hut said a man entered the business, demanded money at gunpoint, then fired a shot inside the restaurant, Gallichant said. No one was injured.



An unidentified person trailed the robber until police arrived and made an arrest, the police spokesman said. Workers at the Pizza Hut declined comment.