A 19-year-old Atmore man and a 17-year-old juvenile remained in the Baldwin County Correctional Center as midweek approached, charged with breaking into a truck at the Bay Minette Walmart and hitting the truck’s owner with a car door as they tried to make their getaway.
The incident happened Sunday, November 12, about 10 p.m.
According to a Mobile television station’s broadcast, Randall Ray Weaver of a Nathan Road address and the unidentified juvenile had broken into the truck and were in the process of looking for items of value when the man returned to his vehicle and caught them in the act.
Weaver reportedly jumped from the vehicle and ran to another vehicle that was being driven by the 17-year-old. The juvenile sped off, causing the door of the getaway vehicle to hit the man and knock him to the pavement of the store’s parking lot. The victim reportedly suffered only “bumps, bruises and a number of scrapes” in the incident.
The two theft and assault suspects continued their escape attempt but didn’t get very far, according to police reports.
Attempts to reach Cpl. Robert Gates of the Bay Minette Police Department were unsuccessful by Tuesday’s press deadline, but in an interview with a Mobile television station, Gates reported that BMPD officers were able to quickly catch up with the duo and place them under arrest.
“Our officers actually made contact with them a short distance away and took both of them into custody,” he said. “They found a firearm that was stolen out of the victim’s vehicle, and there was also some marijuana.”
A spokesman for the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office reported that Weaver is being held under total bonds of $8,500 on one count each of third-degree assault, breaking and entering of a vehicle, second-degree possession of marijuana and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. No information was released regarding the juvenile.
The BCSO spokesman also explained that the agency doesn’t post mug shots of suspects under the age of 21 on its website, nor does it release such mug shots to the media.