EVANSVILLE – An Evansville man has been arrested and preliminarily charged with two counts of robbery after allegedly stealing money and firing a gun inside both Chuck E. Cheese and a used clothing store Tuesday.
Raquavion Lamont Cooper, 23, faces two counts of robbery as a Level 3 felony; two counts of criminal recklessness as a Level 5 felony; and three counts of pointing a pointing a loaded firearm, a Level 6 felony, the affidavit against him states. Authorities also tacked on a misdemeanor count of resisting law enforcement.
No employees were injured during the robberies.
The charges stem from a short spree Evansville police say Cooper carried out in a shopping complex on North Green River Road just after 7 p.m.
According to the affidavit, police had just responded to a report of a robbery at Plato’s Closet when another call came in about a similar incident that had unfolded at Chuck E. Cheese just across the parking lot. Police say Cooper robbed both with a loaded gun and discharged one round at each location.
Robbery at Plato’s Closet
A manager at Plato’s Closet told police she first spotted a male “looking into the front window of the business,” the affidavit states. He then walked in wearing a gray hoodie, black pants and a face mask. He carried a firearm stuffed inside a grocery sack.
“(The manager) stated that the offender walked a few steps into the building and fired the firearm into the air,” the affidavit states. “(The manager) stated that the offender began to smile and approached her. (They) stated that the offender began to tell her that she needed to give him all the money in the store.”
The manager ushered other employees into a backroom and shut the door. The offender then directed the manager to the registers, where he collected a little more than $2,000 in cash. He then fled the store.
The manager told police she followed him and watched him toss the gun in a trash container and sprint toward the Normandy Apartment Homes just behind the complex.
Police later recovered a Glock 21 handgun in the trash, wrapped inside a grocery sack.
Robbery at Chuck E. Cheese
An EPD detective then spoke to employees at the nearby Chuck E. Cheese. The store manager described a similar scene to the one that took place at Plato’s: a man in a gray sweatshirt and face mask pulled a gun and demanded money from the staff. He reportedly pointed the firearm at the manager at two other employees.
The manager handed over some cash and the offender moved toward the door. Just before he left, the affidavit states, “he fired a round … into the air” and then fled east.
A bystander who reportedly saw a shirtless Black male running from the scene directed police to the apartment complex. There, an officer reportedly spotted Cooper standing next to another Dumpster. When the officer told him to stop, he allegedly ran inside his apartment building.
Another man, who police identified as Cooper’s roommate, exited the apartment shortly after police saw Cooper run inside, the affidavit states. He claimed to have been asleep inside and told police “I don’t know nothing about nothing.”
He was later booked into the Vanderburgh County on a preliminary misdemeanor charge of assisting a criminal.
Police eventually apprehended Cooper as well. He was later booked into the Vanderburgh County jail on no bond, jail records state.
Search warrant
After obtaining a search warrant for the apartment, detectives “located a large amount of money” between the mattress and box spring inside Cooper’s room, the affidavit states. They also reportedly recovered a Glock case, a “bag of ammo” and another magazine that matched the gun recovered from the Dumpster.
There was also trash stuffed inside a kitchen trash can. Altogether, the collection of bills and loose and rolled coins came to $2,415.
Cooper’s probable cause hearing was set for 10 a.m. Wednesday in Vanderburgh Superior Court.
After the robbery, Plato’s Closet closed for the evening. In a post to the store’s Facebook page, workers thanked police and said every employee was “safe and sound.”
“In our 25 years of operation we’ve never had something like this happen to us,” the post read, “and hopefully (it) never happens again.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville man accused of robbing clothing store and Chuck E. Cheese