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Robber runs through church, library before arrest
Journal photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Winston-Salem Police responded to Centenary United Methodist Church on Monday morning after a woman was robbed in a parking lot near the church.
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Published: November 3, 2008
Updated: 11/03/2008 02:34 pm
A man was arrested Monday morning after an armed robbery of a pedestrian on Fifth Street led to a dramatic public chase though Centenary United Methodist Church and the Central Library.
Keith Obrian Dawkins, 21, of 4301 Grove Avenue Apt. B, is charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm on school property. He was being held in the Forsyth County jail under a $30,000 bond.
Police Capt. David Clayton said the incident started shortly after 9 a.m. when a man with a handgun approached a woman on the third floor of a parking deck at the corner of Poplar and 4 1/2 streets.
The man demanded the woman's purse, then fled. The woman told a security guard at GMAC Insurance building next door what had happened, and he notified two bike patrol officers who were on routine patrol on 4 1/2 Street, Clayton said.
The officers had shortly before passed a man matching the description of the robber, and started chasing him after he came out of the church, Clayton said.
"This was a situation where the officers were at the right place at the right time," Clayton said.
The robber ran into the lower level of the Central Library, which houses the periodicals department.
Natalia Tuchina, a supervisor in the library's periodicals department, in the lower level, said she saw a man run into the corner of the building. A group of police officers chased him. She said the man fled to an opposite corner, then ran up the staircase that leads to the main level of the library.
Police then surrounded him, drew their guns and ordered him to the ground, Tuchina said.
They handcuffed him and led him through the library's main entrance into a waiting police car.
The periodicals section has a maze of stacks and no exits or windows in the back, where the man had run to, Tuchina said.
"I guess the guy didn't know where to run," she said.
She said that most patrons had been working on computers when the man ran through and that they remained calm when the police arrived and chased him.
"Nobody screamed or anything," she said. The police officers responded very quickly and professionally, she said.
Clayton said a .22 caliber handgun was recovered on a shelf on the lower level of the library.
No shots were fired and no one was injured, Clayton said.
The charge of possession of a weapon on school property was based on the fact that there is a day care in the church, Clayton said.
The children at the church's daycare went to their classrooms with their teachers. All doors leading into the daycare were locked, said B.J. Williams, the assistant director for the daycare.
"Everyone is fine and doing good," she said shortly after the incident ended.
Al Dobson, operations and security supervisor for the church, said few people inside saw the man run through.
"It just happened so fast," Dobson said. "Once we found out he was in the building, we locked everything down."
The man's image was captured by the church's security camera, Dobson said.
Dobson said the man stashed a jacket, knife and a woman's wallet in a closet next to an exit onto Four-and-a-Half Street before he fled toward the library.
Clayton confirmed that some things had been found in the closet, including the victim's stolen property.
Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.
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