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http://wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=1707545&nav=0RZFLUSt
Police Say Armed Robbers Viciously Attacked Their Victims
By James Zambroski
(LOUISVILLE, March 12th, 2004, 11:30 a.m.) -- Investigators say several men have been holding up businesses in the area for months, using guns and knives to beat store clerks into submission. But as WAVE 3 Investigator James Zambroski reports, two have been arrested for the crimes, and police say it's just a matter of time before they catch the others.
Tommy Hardin and Derwin Nickelberry have confessed to 25 armed robberies in nine counties -- at
east 9, maybe 18, in Metro Louisville businesses last summer. But police say it's all over now Hardin and Nickelberry are in custody.
"In several instances, they pistol whipped the employees,
&qu
ot; says Louisville Metro Police Detective Larry Duncan. "In
several instances, they cut the employees. In almost all instances, they threatened them with death."
Joseph Kraatz says he knows firsthand how rough the alleged robbers can be. "They kind of tossed me on the ground a little bit, said I wasn't cooperating is what they said, and they slammed their foot on my back to keep me on the ground and held the guns to the back of our head a little bit."
Detective Duncan says victims didn't know if they were going to live or die. "As your interviewing and speaking with these employees, they didn't know if that was going to be their last minute or not."
Police say the suspects would hide in bushes behind fast food restaurants and businesses
and wait for employees to open the back door.
"Often times, they would rush the employee that would be going out to empty the trash," Duncan says.
Thanks to one of the susp
ect&
#39;s clums
iness, police got their big break in this case in the form of DNA from the suspect's blood left at the scene. He ha
d cut himself with a knife he was using to threaten his victims.
"As he pulled the knife out of the package," Duncan says, "he cut himself and left a blood trail during the hold up."
Police say the armed robbers went on a vicious spree in Louisville last summer, holding up Mr. Gatti's on Dixie Highway and Outer Loop, a Blockbuster Video on Bardstown Road and another on Preston Highway, and the KFC on Dixie Highway in Valley Station.
Police say Hardin and Nickelberry, who are in the Hardin County jail, were the leaders of a five- person gang, and three other suspects are still at large.
Investigators believe the gang is respons
ible for at least 37 armed robberies. They expect to take the case to a Jefferson County grand jury soon.
http://wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=1707545&nav=0RZFLUSt
Police Say Armed Robbers Viciously Attacked Their Victims
By James Zambroski
(LOUISVILLE, March 12th, 2004, 11:30 a.m.) -- Investigators say several men have been holding up businesses in the area for months, using guns and knives to beat store clerks into submission. But as WAVE 3 Investigator James Zambroski reports, two have been arrested for the crimes, and police say it's just a matter of time before they catch the others.
Tommy Hardin and Derwin Nickelberry have confessed to 25 armed robberies in nine counties -- at
east 9, maybe 18, in Metro Louisville businesses last summer. But police say it's all over now Hardin and Nickelberry are in custody.
"In several instances, they pistol whipped the employees,
&qu
ot; says Louisville Metro Police Detective Larry Duncan. "In
several instances, they cut the employees. In almost all instances, they threatened them with death."
Joseph Kraatz says he knows firsthand how rough the alleged robbers can be. "They kind of tossed me on the ground a little bit, said I wasn't cooperating is what they said, and they slammed their foot on my back to keep me on the ground and held the guns to the back of our head a little bit."
Detective Duncan says victims didn't know if they were going to live or die. "As your interviewing and speaking with these employees, they didn't know if that was going to be their last minute or not."
Police say the suspects would hide in bushes behind fast food restaurants and businesses
and wait for employees to open the back door.
"Often times, they would rush the employee that would be going out to empty the trash," Duncan says.
Thanks to one of the susp
ect&
#39;s clums
iness, police got their big break in this case in the form of DNA from the suspect's blood left at the scene. He ha
d cut himself with a knife he was using to threaten his victims.
"As he pulled the knife out of the package," Duncan says, "he cut himself and left a blood trail during the hold up."
Police say the armed robbers went on a vicious spree in Louisville last summer, holding up Mr. Gatti's on Dixie Highway and Outer Loop, a Blockbuster Video on Bardstown Road and another on Preston Highway, and the KFC on Dixie Highway in Valley Station.
Police say Hardin and Nickelberry, who are in the Hardin County jail, were the leaders of a five- person gang, and three other suspects are still at large.
Investigators believe the gang is respons
ible for at least 37 armed robberies. They expect to take the case to a Jefferson County grand jury soon.