Good patrol officers are inquisitive and curious, and are not afraid to ask questions. So when Officers J. Simmons and K. Garner spotted a rental car from Perquimans County riding around Hemby Lane in Greenville Thursday morning at 2:00 a.m., they stopped the driver to ask a few questions.
Hemby lane is convenient to Stantonsburg Road and Arlington Blvd, and there are several convenience stores very close by.
When the Greenville officers asked the driver and his passenger why they were in the area at that time of night, and where they were going, the officers soon found the 2 men had no real answers. At some point in this process, reasonable suspicion begins to develop that maybe these guys aren't tourists and are not lost in Greenville.
The late hour of the night, along with the unexplainable presence of these 2 men in an area where they are not conducting any legitimate activity, leads the officers to dig a little deeper and ask a few more questions.
Soon enough, the officers found the 2 men were carrying a pistol-grip pump shotgun with them. Now reasonable suspicion is growing into something larger. Probable cause has been developed that these men are carrying a concealed weapon. But certainly something needs to be explored further.
The 2 men are detained for questioning by the patrol officers, and detectives from the Major Crimes Unit are summoned.
These 2 men closely fit the description of 2 men who robbed a convenience store in this same area in Greenville last week. Their shotgun matches the same weapon description that was seen on surveillance video of the robbery.
Additional questioning by detectives develops evidence enough to conclude these 2 men weren't just riding around Greenville, enjoying the cool night air.
An armed robbery is solved. Another armed robbery is likely to have been prevented. Because a couple of police officers did their jobs.
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