Charleston police officers stand guard outside a Lee Street East apartment Friday night where they thought murder suspect Jarod Edward Washington was hiding. Washington, who police said had left moments before their arrival, was later apprehended near Beckley.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A man wanted in connection with the slaying of a 40-year-old Charleston man earlier this week was arrested while fleeing to Beckley on Friday night, police said.
Jarod Edward Washington, 29, had left an apartment on Charleston's East End moments before police surrounded it, according to Charleston Police Department Lt. Steve Cooper. Washington apparently had been hiding there since a warrant for his arrest was issued Monday.
Police say Washington and Daniel Okeith Little, 29, fatally shot Roy Chambliss, 40, during a robbery at Chambliss' apartment on Piccadilly Street. Little was arrested Monday night and is being held without bond in South Central Regional Jail.
Police intensified their search for Washington on Friday after witnesses saw him enter an apartment in the 1400 block of Lee Street East, Cooper said.
Officers armed with rifles and bulletproof vests surrounded the apartment for more than three hours while neighbors and curious onlookers watched from a safe distance.
At first, police were focused on the building next to the one where Washington had been hiding. The landlord of that building arrived and gave police a key and permission to search the building.
Cooper said police then learned that Washington had been staying with a woman at an apartment next to the one where police originally looked, at 1424 Lee St. E. He said Washington and the woman apparently fled moments before they arrived.
Just as officers were preparing to enter the second building, Cooper said, he received word that state troopers had stopped and arrested the pair on the West Virginia Turnpike.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A man wanted in connection with the slaying of a 40-year-old Charleston man earlier this week was arrested while fleeing to Beckley on Friday night, police said.
Jarod Edward Washington, 29, had left an apartment on Charleston's East End moments before police surrounded it, according to Charleston Police Department Lt. Steve Cooper. Washington apparently had been hiding there since a warrant for his arrest was issued Monday.
Police say Washington and Daniel Okeith Little, 29, fatally shot Roy Chambliss, 40, during a robbery at Chambliss' apartment on Piccadilly Street. Little was arrested Monday night and is being held without bond in South Central Regional Jail.
Police intensified their search for Washington on Friday after witnesses saw him enter an apartment in the 1400 block of Lee Street East, Cooper said.
Officers armed with rifles and bulletproof vests surrounded the apartment for more than three hours while neighbors and curious onlookers watched from a safe distance.
At first, police were focused on the building next to the one where Washington had been hiding. The landlord of that building arrived and gave police a key and permission to search the building.
Cooper said police then learned that Washington had been staying with a woman at an apartment next to the one where police originally looked, at 1424 Lee St. E. He said Washington and the woman apparently fled moments before they arrived.
Just as officers were preparing to enter the second building, Cooper said, he received word that state troopers had stopped and arrested the pair on the West Virginia Turnpike.
Washington is charged with first-degree murder and robbery, the same charges Little faces. He was to be arraigned in Raleigh County Magistrate Court sometime Friday night.
The woman will be charged in connection to hiding a wanted person, Cooper said. He did not know the woman's name.
Washington's stepfather showed up at the scene and asked police if he could be of any assistance.
The man declined to give his name, but said he hadn't talked to his stepson since learning about his alleged involvement in the slaying.
"I don't know how any of this happened," the man said.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court, the shooting happened at 403 Piccadilly St. just after 1:40 p.m. Monday. Police found Chambliss dead of apparent gunshot wounds to the chest, and Natalie Sprouse, 20, his roommate, wounded with a gunshot to the arm.
Sprouse told police that Washington and Little had tried to sell the guns the night before but were told they didn't have any money. The suspects came back the next day and allegedly tried to make Chambliss open his locked safe at gunpoint.
A fight ensued and both suspects fired their weapons at Chambliss, according to the complaint.
Reach Travis Crum at travis.c...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163. Reach Kate White at kate.wh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
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