west metro
Police break up Hopkins robbery, find victims taped to bed
- Article by: ABBY SIMONS , Star Tribune
- Updated: April 8, 2010 - 9:29 PM
One suspect escaped by jumping from a two-story window; the victims were allegedly being bound to a bed.
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A couple being bound to their bed by two intruders who burst into their Hopkins home while their baby lay in a crib in another room were saved in part by a sharp-eyed citizen, according to charges filed Thursday in Hennepin County District Court.
Demetrius Lavell Sydnor, 22, and Robert Wilford Fields III, 19, both of Brooklyn Center, are each charged with six felonies, including burglary, first-degree aggravated robbery and kidnapping, in connection with the Monday home invasion on the 100 block of Van Buren Avenue. They remain in the Hennepin County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
The couple, ages 24 and 25, and their child were not seriously hurt.
According to a search warrant filed Tuesday, the suspects may have targeted the home because they believed the male resident to be a "drug dealer." That victim admitted he used to sell marijuana but said he had not done so for at least nine months, according to the warrant.
The warrant seeks cell phone information regarding a call that allegedly threatened the victims after the incident, with the caller saying "I know who you are. After 72 hours, it is going down."
According to the charges filed Thursday, a concerned citizen called police at 5:44 p.m. Monday to report seeing two men milling around the neighborhood for about 20 minutes before knocking on the front door of the home. A woman answered and the two men shoved her inside as she screamed, police said.
When officers arrived, they heard screaming and entered the house, charges said.
An officer ran upstairs and arrested Fields, the charges said, while calling out that the second suspect, later identified as Sydnor, had jumped from the second-story window. Police found Sydnor locked in a portable toilet in a nearby park, the charges said. A search revealed $550 in cash and condoms taken from the home.
In an interview with police, the female victim said she was walking with her child in the neighborhood about 4:15 p.m. and saw the two suspects on the sidewalk. Five minutes after she returned home at 5:30 p.m., the two men knocked on her door, asking about the man of the house, the charges said.
According to the search warrant, when told he was asleep, they asked the woman to wake him up. She felt something was not right and tried to close the door when the men pushed their way in. The suspects woke the man and directed the couple through the house as they searched closets and belongings, hitting the man several times in the face, according to the documents.
The suspects had begun to restrain the couple on a bed in the attic with tape when police burst into the house, the charges said. Police also found a CO2 BB pistol near where Sydnor allegedly jumped to the ground.
Abby Simons • 612-673-4921
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