5 sought in Mud Island robbery

Park workers bound, shot fired but no one hurt

901-529-2572

Memphis police and the FBI are searching for five robbers who tied up employees at Mud Island River Park Tuesday morning, took cash from park registers and fired a shot as they made their escape.

The city-owned park across from Downtown Memphis was placed on lockdown and closed for the day. It will reopen today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, five men, at least one of whom was armed, burst into the park office where cash receipts are kept, said Dorchelle Spence, vice president of the Riverfront Development Corp., the nonprofit firm that runs the park for the city. At least two office employees were bound, but there were no serious injuries, she said.

How much, if any, money the robbers got away with is unknown, Spence said. “We know money was taken at the office, but we don’t know if they got away with it.”

The money was from registers at the park gift shop and other facilities.

The robbers entered the park by vehicle through the north gate, which is staffed by security officers, at around the same time fishermen preparing for this week’s Mississippi River Monsters Catfish Tournament were arriving, Spence said.

As the perpetrators left through the same gate, security personnel and other park employees — having been notified of the robbery — ordered them to halt. Instead, one of the robbers fired a shot, and the group escaped. No one was struck, and there were no serious injuries during the entire event, Spence said.

The park staff “acted bravely in the midst of the violent robbery,” Spence said.

The preparations for the fishing tournament were disrupted only briefly by the robbery. “For a little while, the fishermen couldn’t put in because the police and FBI had the island on lockdown,” she said.

The 52-acre river park, which opened in 1982, includes the Mississippi River Museum, a monorail, a scale model of the river known as the Riverwalk, an amphitheater, concession stands, banquet facilities and a “Gulf of Mexico” pool where pedal boats can be rented. For years it has been plagued by maintenance problems, a lack of investment, seven-figure operating losses and lackluster attendance.

Inquiries to Memphis police regarding the incident were not returned Tuesday afternoon.

JIM WEBER/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL Mud Island River Park was closed Tuesday as Memphis police and the FBI investigated an armed robbery in which office employees were tied up and a shot was fired as the five suspects escaped.