TRINITY – A man suspected of stealing a pistol and money orders from Trinity County residence was chased down Monday, June 22, by Trinity police and placed in jail.
Robert Spooner, 21, of Channelview was charged with theft of a firearm following a brief foot pursuit that began on Main Street at the Trinity Pawn Shop.
According to Sgt. Thomas Park, police responded to a panic alarm from the pawn shop and as they arrived, they spotted a man carrying a gun running south.
Park and Officer Travis Bryan pursued the suspect and caught him in an alleyway a little over a block from the pawn shop.
“He chunked the gun before we took him down, but Travis was able to recover it,” Park said.
The police sergeant said they subsequently learned the gun along with some blank money orders had been stolen from a house in the Lakewood at Livingston subdivision east of Trinity off FM 356.
The suspect had apparently been staying a guest in the home at the time of the theft. Police were summoned when the suspect went to the pawn shop in an attempt to cash one or more of the money orders and to pawn the weapon.
“The owner of the gun came into town and went to the pawn shop to see if his pistol – a .22 caliber revolver – had been pawned,” Park said. “He happened to walk in when the suspect was there and there was a confrontation.”
Park said that was when the owner of the pawn shop triggered the panic alarm to summon police.

Burglary suspect jailed
In other police activity, Misty Cullen, 35, was taken into custody and a warrant for the arrest of Juanita Prevatte, 32, was issued in connection with a June 3 break-in reported at Roy’s Bait Shop in Trinity.
Trinity Police Chief Steven Jones said Cullen was taken into custody Sunday by Officer Millard Stains on a burglary warrant issued in the case.
The two Trinity women are charged with breaking through a glass doorway and stealing beer, cigarettes, a new chain saw and about $30 in cash.

Mental health call
On Monday, police assisted the Adult Protective Services (APS) in a mental health case involving a 94-year-old Trinity woman.
Jones said that over the weekend, the woman called police a number of times to report people in her yard. However, each time when police responded, they could find no one.
On Monday, police were again summoned to the home after the woman came out of her house and fired two rounds from a .38 caliber pistol into her rock and dirt driveway.
Neighbors reported that there were several children playing in the area at the time of the gunshots.
Jones said when police arrived, the woman told them someone was trying to steal the wheels and tires from her car “from the inside out.”
The police chief said APS and officials at the Burke Center were contacted.  Pct. 1 Deputy Constable Rusty Barrett subsequently transported the woman to a mental health care facility in Palestine.