Freeway pursuit nets robbery suspect
Published 5:02 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2009
By Adam Smith
The North Jefferson News
A police pursuit last week may have helped several law enforcement agencies close cases on some unsolved crimes.
At 5 p.m. on Thursday, the Gardendale Police Department received a call about a vehicle traveling south on Interstate 65. The vehicle, a 1985 S-10, was reported stolen on Sept. 27 from a Birmingham business.
Gardendale Police officers got into a pursuit with the suspect near the Mt. Olive Road exit.
Police Chief Mike Walker said the driver, identified as 51-year-old Randy Lee Lucas of Springville, was driving recklessly and throwing various items out the window, including a cell phone and bottles of transmission fluid.
Lucas reportedly stopped after getting off the interstate at the 41st Avenue exit. Gardendale Police Sgt. Bryan Lynch and Lt. Marty Brown then entered into a foot pursuit with Lucas.
Lynch reportedly attempted to use a taser on Lucas, at which point he surrendered.
Among the items discovered in the stolen truck were conduit benders, often used by electricians. Walker said the same kind of instrument was used as a weapon in the Sept. 20 robbery of a Chevron station on Mt. Olive Road and a similar robbery in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 21.
“When we saw it, we knew what it was because it’s a very unique thing to use for a robbery,” he said. “We had suspected the Mt. Olive and Tuscaloosa robberies were linked.”
The vehicle alleged to have been used by the suspect in the Mt. Olive robbery had been wrecked, but officers found it in a Birmingham impound lot.
Lucas faces numerous charges, including a burglary charge in Birmingham, robbery in Tuscaloosa and robbery and receiving stolen property in Gardendale. Bond for the robbery is $60,000 and receiving stolen property carries a $30,000 bond.
“I’m proud of all our people for conducting the pursuit so safely. Nobody got hurt and we ended up solving a series of crimes,” Walker said. “He [Lucas] had a full week, but now it’s come to an end.”
