HOPKINTON, R.I. — A man and four teenagers from Connecticut have been arrested for the attempted armed robbery of a Rhode Island convenience store.
Hopkinton is just over the border from Connecticut, the first Rhode Island town I-95 passes through. Police there say they got a 9-1-1 call from Spicer’s Marketplace, a convenience store on Main Street, about 6:30 Friday evening. The caller said two men had come in, one with a gun, and demanded money. The men fled the store without any cash and the clerk provided a description of the car.
About 10 minutes later a patrolman spotted the car and pulled it over, but the driver took off again, fleeing onto a local golf course property. Police from nearby Richmond, and Rhode Island State Police, helped box in the car, and took five males into custody. With the help of a K9, police found two bandannas and a fully loaded 9mm handgun used in the robbery. They also say they found several baggies of suspected crack cocaine.
29-year-old Jeffrey Wheeler of East Lyme, Connecticut, and 18-year-old Benjamin Ibbitson of New London, Connecticut are being held for armed robbery and drug possession charges, while the other car occupants, juveniles also from Connecticut, are being investigated in connection to an armed robbery of a nail salon in West Warwick earlier that day. The three juveniles are being held for referral Monday in Family Court.
