A Greenwood store clerk was hospitalized with severe injuries to his face after he was beaten and pistol-whipped by a robber, and a driver was also taken to the hospital when the same suspect, fleeing from police, crashed into his truck.
Jameson McCarthy, 25, Indianapolis, was also hospitalized after police said he robbed a Greenwood tobacco store, stole a car and led police on a pursuit. McCarthy was treated at Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, where he also was wanted on a warrant for armed robbery.
McCarthy has now been charged in Johnson County with robbery, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, criminal confinement, resisting law enforcement and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. McCarthy has previous convictions for robbery and battery on a correctional officer resulting in injury.
Police were first called to the Greenwood Discount Tobacco store located at U.S. 31 and Fry Road, just south of Greenwood Park Mall, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on a robbery report.
Customers told police McCarthy pushed a man to the ground and demanded money from the store clerk, and then wanted him to open the safe. When the clerk said he couldn’t, McCarthy pointed the gun at him and told him to fill a bag with cigarette cartons, according to the Greenwood Police Department report.
McCarthy then turned to one customer and demanded the keys to his vehicle. When the man said the keys were in his vehicle, McCarthy demanded another customer’s keys and told the first man to go outside and start the other customer’s vehicle.
While the man was outside, he quickly yelled for someone to call 911 and went back inside where he found McCarthy beating the store clerk, the report. The clerk, who was taken to Community Hospital South, had injuries to his eyes and was unable to see well enough to make a written report.
McCarthy left the store in the customer’s van that already was running and headed west on Fry Road. An officer saw the van and saw McCarthy swerve toward him, and then a pursuit began, with McCarthy speeding and weaving around other vehicles. The vehicle turned into the Whispering Trails neighborhood, near State Road 135, where it drove through yards, struck a wooden pole and almost struck vehicles and houses, before going back onto Fry Road, now heading east.
At some points, the driver would show the gun to police, and officers had to back off for their own safety, Greenwood Police Department spokeswoman Kortney Burrello said.
Police used stop sticks at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Fry Road, which McCarthy avoided before hitting a truck and then a pole. McCarthy then began yelling at police, telling them he had a gun and would commit suicide, before climbing on top of the van.
McCarthy was ordered to get down but did not. An officer used a Taser on McCarthy. He fell to the ground and was arrested.
The officer used the Taser because of concern of whether McCarthy still had the gun, since he was reaching toward his pants and to try to resolve the situation so emergency medical workers could come to the scene to treat the other driver McCarthy struck, Burrello said. That driver was also hospitalized, she said.
McCarthy was treated at Eskenazi Hospital for a dislocated shoulder and then taken to the Marion County Jail. Once he is released from there, he will be sent to the Johnson County jail, police said.
