EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – An overnight armed robbery at a Sauget ATM led to a police chase ending in East St. Louis with an officer involved shooting. On Friday morning, one suspect was in the hospital and police are still searching for multiple other suspects.
This entire episode started unfolding just after 2:30 a.m. That’s when an armed robbery was reported at an ATM at the ‘MotoMart’ on Route 3 in Sauget. Four suspects robbed a male victim at gunpoint, according to police reports to FOX 2. The suspects then got into a black Acura and took off.
Sauget police got information about the crime and the car. A Sauget officer spotted the Acura and started chasing it. That pursuit ended a few minutes later at 27th and Ridge in East St. Louis, not far from State Street.
At that point, Illinois State Police said that two of the four suspects got out of the Acura and pointed handguns at the single Sauget officer who was chasing them. That’s when authorities fired, hitting one of the suspects, a 19-year-old male, in the arm. The suspects all ran off after the shooting.
The 19-year-old was caught and taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The other three suspects are still at large; police say they are between 18 and 22 years old. Authorities added that items were taken from the man who was robbed at the ATM, including a gun. He was not physically hurt at the scene. Officers also didn’t face any injuries.
Authorities did recover handguns from the scene where the shooting took place. Sauget Police and Illinois State Police are both investigating the case. The focus now is to find those other three suspects.
FOX 2 will update this story with more information as it becomes available.
