EVANSVILLE — Evansville police arrested two people in connection with a reported robbery late Sunday night.
According to an Evansville Police Department affidavit, the 19-year-old victim told police that a group of people robbed him at gunpoint while he was walking in the 600 block of Jefferson Avenue around 11:30 p.m.
He told police the suspects ordered him to get on the ground, and one of them struck him twice while he was laying down. The men went through his pockets and took his wallet.
The two people arrested were identified as Antonio D. Tolbert, 18, and Julien T. Hinton, 20.
The man’s glasses were broken and he suffered a cut on his head from the attack, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, officers soon located Hinton and Tolbert and a brief foot pursuit ensued. Hinton was arrested on the porch of a home in the 600 block of Jackson Street after he tried to hide a handgun in a grill in the front yard, police said. Hinton later told officers he was already on probation for a previous gun charge and was trying to hide the gun so he wouldn’t get in more trouble, according to the affidavit.
Tolbert was arrested in the 600 block of Taylor Avenue after trying to evade officers, according to the affidavit. Though police recovered the victim’s wallet from Tolbert, he told officers he found the wallet on top of a pile of snow and denied any involvement in the robbery.
Both Hinton and Tolbert are being held without bond at the Vanderburgh County Jail. Hinton is preliminarily charged with possession of a firearm without a permit and resisting law enforcement. Sgt. Jason Cullum of the Evansville Police Department said investigators believe Hinton was involved in the robbery but did not have enough evidence to charge him with the crime at the time of his arrest. A decision whether to bring charges against him for the robbery itself will now be up to the prosecutor’s office after it reviews the case.
Tolbert is preliminarily charged with robbery with a firearm and battery with a firearm, both felonies, as well as resisting law enforcement, a misdemeanor.