ORLANDO, Fla. — Part of Curry Ford Road near Conway Road was shut down Tuesday morning as police investigated a carjacking and two subsequent armed robberies in Orlando.
Police arrested Miguel Gil, 22, and Frantz Theodore, 21, after the series of crimes that started at about 2:48 a.m. when a Pop-A-Lock driver was carjacked along South Semoran Boulevard with a BB gun, police said.
"This is a man who was terrorized with a gun to his head," Michelle Guido of the Orlando Police Department said.
A 7-Eleven convenience store on South Goldenrod Road was robbed at gunpoint just after 3 a.m. and a second was robbed shortly after that, investigators said. Investigators said the suspects tried to steal cash and cigarettes.
Orlando police officers spotted the stolen vehicle and pursued it until it crashed into a light pole at the intersection of Curry Ford Road and Dunsany Avenue.
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"Even the officers, when they first spotted (the BB guns) inside the car and on the bodies of these guys, had no idea that they were not real firearms," Guido said.
The driver of the vehicle, who was not identified by police, received minor injuries in the crash, the Orlando Police Department said.
A passenger in the vehicle was not injured.
Gil and Theodore are charged with carjacking with a firearm and grand theft of a motor vehicle with a mask. Gil was also charged with false imprisonment, robbery with a firearm and robbery with a mask. Theodore was also charged with accessory to robbery with a firearm.
"The truth is it doesn't matter. If you are a criminal and you're using a fake gun to commit a real crime, you are going to be charged as if it were a real gun," Guido said.
The roadway was reopened by 4:30 a.m.
Cox Media Group
