Downtown jewel heist ends safely

What had been a quiet Friday afternoon at Victor Settle's downtown jewelry store became a nightmare for the store's owners, when two young men stormed through the front door at 3:50 p.m. brandishing 9 mm semiautomatic handguns. \nThey immediately had everyone's attention.\nOne man herded everyone into a back room, where the victims were forced to the floor at gunpoint, according to police reports.\nEveryone complied, but an employee tripped the silent alarm in the process.\nOne of the men rifled through the jewelry and watches behind the counter, stuffing everything he could grab into a backpack. He also seized a watch and cell phone from customers.\nThe other man stood guard at the door, hauling two new customers into the back room. Another unidentified woman stepped through the door, saw what was happening and quickly walked away. One man chased her down the street, jammed his gun to her ribs and dragged her back to the store. Several times, the men threatened to kill her.\nThe men fled the store, ducking into an alley as the first squad car reached the scene. \nThe first officers on the scene, William Crays and John Kovach, chased two suspects on foot. They fled north to Kirkwood Avenue, then east for half a block and then south through a pedestrian alley by the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre. \nThe robbers had discarded their weapons, which were later recovered. One gun was left in a bag at the store, the other tossed away in an alley. \nSix officers cornered two suspects near Fourth and Washington streets. \nThat is what the police reports tell of the arrest.\n"I was very apprehensive," said Capt. Bill Parker, who was on the scene of the arrest with his gun trained on one of the men. "When you consider how many civilians were nearby, I'm just grateful they didn't start shooting."\nPolice arrested Indianapolis resident Brishon Bond, 27, and a man who claims to be Charles Wade Brown, 23, also of Indianapolis. Brown carried no identification. Both are IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis students.\nSgt. Bob Neely was the first officer to enter the store, where he found owners Victor and Marie Settle lying on the floor with employees and customers.\n"We're glad that no one got hurt," Marie Settle said. "We just shudder to think at what could have happened."\nBrown and Bond face preliminary charges of 10 counts of confinement, three counts of armed robbery and one count of possession of a firearm without a license. If convicted on all counts, the standard sentence for each would be 30 years.\n"We basically threw the book at them," Parker said. "We charged them for each individual forced in the back room and for each theft."\nParker said the county prosecutor may also charge them with possession of a firearm during a felony. \nBond is being held in the Monroe County Correctional Center in lieu of $100,000 surety and $10,000 cash bond, while Brown is being held without bond, according to jail records.