Community member helps police nab robbery suspect
Medicine Hat police say an observant member of the community helped them find and arrest a man who fled from them after a robbery allegation.
A news release posted by police Tuesday asked the public to be on the lookout for 40-year-old Graeme Illingworth.
It was alleged the man had shoplifted items from the Shoppers Drug Mart in Crescent Heights on July 3. When confronted by a store employee, a struggle ensued and the accused brandished an edged weapon and threatened to use it to complete his escape.
Investigation led police to a multidwelling complex on the 2300 block of Hatcher Drive, where the suspect was located on the second floor. He fled through an apartment and jumped off a balcony to escape. While containment
was set up, police were unable to apprehend the man.
A follow-up news release from police states that at 10 p.m. the same day, 911 received a tip from a member of the community who observed a man matching the suspect’s description walking with a limp near an apartment building in the zero hundred block of 19th Street NE.
Police were dispatched and after searching the area spotted the suspect trying to return to an apartment building in the original Hatcher Drive location.
He fled on foot once he observed police cruisers in the area, with containment set up and police service dog Flint and handler locating him hiding in the bushes a short distance from where he was originally spotted.
Illingworth is in custody for outstanding warrants.