Alert citizens help stop crimes in progress
Trinity Standard -

TRINITY – Citizens alerting police to suspicious activity resulted in the recovery of stolen guns from a Glendale burglary and the arrest of two 17-year-olds following an attempted Trinity break-in. Trinity Police Chief Steve Jones credited members of the public with solving the two incidents reported Sunday and Monday in Trinity. “We may have conducted the follow-up investigation and made the arrests, but we wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without the information provided by alert members of the community,” he said. The first incident began about 10 p.m. Sunday when police received a report of suspicious activity in an apartment complex parking lot off Kelly Street. Jones said he received a call about men who appeared to be trying to sell weapons but when he and Officer Travis Bryan arrived, the suspects were gone. They then received another report that the activity had moved to another parking area near the sharp curve on FM 356 (intersection of Emory Street and Pegoda Road). When Jones and Bryan arrived at the second location, they found the suspects as well as eight rifles with scopes, a shotgun, a pair of binoculars and three hunting knives. They were subsequently joined at the scene by Pct. 1 Constable Woody Wallace. “When we asked about the weapons, they all claimed that the guns didn’t belong to them,” Jones said. At the time police had no evidence that the weapons were stolen, so they made no arrests but they did confiscate the guns, knives and binoculars. When Jones began calling around to other law enforcement agencies to see if they had received a report regarding the weapons, he learned that a homeowner in Glendale had just notified the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department of a burglary and theft. “At about the same time we were seizing he guns in Trinity, the homeowner was returning home and discovered the break-in,” Jones said. Jones said warrants charging the suspects with felony theft of firearms would be issued against two men and one juvenile this week in connection with the recovery of the guns. In addition, the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department would be processing possible burglary charges in the case. The second incident began about 2:30 p.m. Monday when two suspects reportedly attempted to kick in a door at a residence located near the intersection of Elm and Elizabeth streets. Quintarius Clemons, 17, and Corddiro Morning, 17, both of Trinity were subsequently charged with felon attempted burglary of a habitation. “Neighbors heard a loud banging and then saw two people quickly moving away from the house. They weren’t running, but were acting very suspiciously,” Jones said. After receiving the call, the police chief, Wallace, TPD Sgt. Randy Wheeler and Pct. 1 Deputy Constable Mark Cole left the police department and began driving up Elm Street to the residence. While in route, they spotted two men who matched the description given by neighbors. They were both walking west on Caroline Street near the Trinity County Veterans of Foreign Wars Post. Jones said Wheeler and Cole were in one car and they turned onto Caroline to make contact with the suspects. Meanwhile, Jones and Wallace, in another vehicle, continued north on Elm before turning west on Elizabeth. “The two spotted Wheeler and Cole and took off to hide behind the VFW but they never spotted the other car,” Jones said, noting that he and Wallace watched as they kept looking around and corner of the building trying to keep track of Wheeler and Cole. While Jones and Wallace cut across the back of the east end of the VFW, the car with Wheeler and Cole moved around the west end of the building and boxed the suspects between the two patrol vehicles. Evidence gathered from the house at Elm and Elizabeth indicated that someone had tried to kick in a door. While there was damage evident from the attempt, the door remained closed and locked. He said investigators believe the suspect became concerned with the noise they were creating and decided to abandon their burglary attempt. In other recent police activity, small quantities of crack cocaine were seized in two separate investigations. The first occurred shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday during a traffic stop. The driver of the car, Ervin Briggs Jr., 57, of Trinity was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance – crack cocaine, while a passenger, Sheila Flakes, 28, of Houston was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Flakes’ two children – ages four and five – were in the car at the time of the arrests and were subsequently turned over to family members. Officers involved in the investigation included Jones, Larry Barak and Daniel Adams. The second cocaine-related case began about 3:40 a.m. Sunday after police received complaints regarding possible drug activity in a trailer park at the end of Parker Street. Arrested at the scene was Percy Brooks Jr., 38, of Trinity, who was charged with possession of a controlled substance. He was being held early this week under a $25,000 bond. Jones said the trailer park is an area that police believe has a large amount of drug activity so when officers arrived to confront the people in the mobile home, they subsequently located small amounts of crack cocaine. The police chief noted the arrest came as part of a joint operation with the Precinct 1 Constable’s Office.