Robbery suspect arrested
Published 9:00 am Tuesday, December 16, 2014
A man released from prison less than two months ago is believed to be behind a spate of armed robberies and kidnappings that happened in the city last week, Lake Charles authorities said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
Timothy Wayne Hill, 38, 1536 Brick St. Apt. A, was arrested while attempting to pull off another armed robbery and kidnapping Saturday, Chief of Police Don Dixon said. A man who was being forced to drive to an ATM and withdraw money got the attention of a police officer, who arrested Hill after a foot chase, Dixon said.
Hill is suspected of committing three armed robberies in which he forced people into their cars and another in which he robbed two people waiting to go to mass.
Hill’s alleged robbery spree began around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 8 when he came upon an employee of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in the health center’s parking lot, Dixon said. Hill reportedly forced the man into his own vehicle at gunpoint, then got into the backseat, robbed him and made him drive to the Legion Street area, where Hill exited.
The next robbery happened around midnight Dec. 10, Dixon said. As a woman exited Walgreens at the corner of 18th and Ryan streets, Hill is alleged to have forced her into her car, then had her drive to an ATM. The first ATM they reached was closed, so she was made to drive to another, where she withdrew money. Hill then had the woman drive to her house, where he left on foot, Dixon said.
The third robbery happened Dec. 11 during daylight outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. A man and woman were waiting to enter mass when they were reportedly approached by a man who demanded money. The man gave up his money, but the woman refused to give all of hers, telling the robber instead, “Shoot, in the name of Jesus, shoot.”
Hill has a history of armed robberies, including seven during a 30-hour window in 2004, the chief said. Convicted of those crimes, he was released on parole in October.
“The system failed 10 years ago,” Dixon said. “That’s five victims we’ve had traumatized because the system failed.”
Dixon said Hill became a suspect in the recent robberies because they fit the same pattern as the 2004 robberies.
“We all thought he was in jail,” Dixon said, but police got a call that Hill was out of jail and matched the description given of a man with “thick-rimmed glasses.”
Before police had finished preparing warrants, Hill was apprehended by second-year police officer Chris Boudin, Dixon said. Hill was arrested following a similar robbery attempt where a man who exited a doctor’s office on Pryce Street was forced into his car and made to drive to an ATM.
Boudin said he was at a bank at the corner of Broad Street and Second Avenue when he heard the sound of tires screeching. He turned and saw a car heading toward his vehicle. As the car turned, he saw a man with a gun jump out. He knew the man could be the armed robbery suspect because his supervisor had told officers to be on the lookout, Boudin said.
Boudin said he gave chase in his police unit, until the man ran through a fence, forcing a foot pursuit. After a brief search at Sunlight Manor, Boudin said he located Hill, who had the gun in his waistband. Hill was also carrying the ID of the man who was kidnapped, Dixon said.
“My main concern was keeping innocent people out of it,” Boudin said. “I didn’t want to start a gunfight in the middle of a living complex.”
The gun turned out to be a stolen pellet handgun, with the orange safety tip removed.
“I’d have shot him and I wonder what would have happened if we had shot him and it turns out the gun wasn’t real,” Dixon said. “I wonder what the outcry would have been, and I don’t know. Quite frankly, I don’t care, but that’s what we have to deal with.”
Dixon gave Boudin a medal of commendation, saying he is “the kind of officer we want.”
Hill also has a 1999 conviction for attempted second-degree murder, Calcasieu District Attorney John DeRosier said. He said his office will seek life imprisonment.
“That’s where he needs to be, and this district attorney’s office is going to make sure that’s exactly where he ends up, so he cannot hurt, scare or injure anyone else, ever,” DeRosier said.
In Hill’s final 2004 robbery before being captured, he put a woman in a closet, then led police on a foot chase, Dixon said. At the last house on the list of places that police believed Hill may have been, a dog picked up his scent and he was found hiding under the house.
Facing a bevy of police officers and a dog, Hill came out from under the house holding two chunks of concrete, Dixon said.
“That gives you an idea of the mentality of this subject,” Dixon said. “He was smoking crack cocaine.”