MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An 18-year-old police say is connected to a string of robberies and carjackings in East Memphis, Midtown and southeast Memphis was taken into custody early Saturday.
Isaiah Miller was booked into the Shelby County Jail under multiple charges of aggravated robbery and carjacking.
Around 1 p.m. Friday, police say Miller and three other suspects approached a woman in the 3800 block of Park Avenue near Getwell, hit her in the face and took her purse containing several hundred dollars in cash.
Later, police received calls about four males in a car, driving recklessly and shooting from the vehicle. They ran the plates and discovered the car had been stolen in a carjacking Oct. 11.
Officers pursued the vehicle to the Cedar Mills Apartments in Fox Meadows, where they say the four males got out and ran.
Miller was captured and police say he confessed. He faces charges of robbery and evading arrest. Police said two semi-automatic rifles were found in the car.
Miller was wanted in another incident Oct. 10 in a Cooper-Young parking lot, where police say he and three other young men forced two other men to the ground, hit one in the face and threatened to shoot him, and made off with the victim’s car and belongings.
Miller is set for an arraignment Monday morning.
Court records show Miller had been released on bond from another incident in September, when he and a group of young men allegedly robbed a man at a gas pump on East Shelby Drive, stealing his wallet and threatening to shoot him.
The next day, he was connected to a car theft involving a woman who told police she left her car running at a different gas station on East Shelby Drive. A police dog later helped locate Miller getting into the stolen car, according to records.
Police say he confessed to the two incidents in September. He is charged with robbery and theft in that case.
So far, Miller hasn’t been charged by police in other crimes.
But Jason Whitworth, a member of Cooper-Young’s neighborhood watch, says he has video evidence that he believes links Miller to several other crimes in the area.
“Isaiah Miller, we know is connected to at least one, if not all three of the recent armed robberies in Cooper-Young,” Whitworth said. “Sticking guns in peoples faces, it got more serious and we got more determined to hold on to our neighborhood.”
The neighborhood watch gives their videos to Memphis Police, who they say do the real work.
“Don’t come here and commit a crime, because we are going to take your picture and we’re going to give it to the police and you’re going to get caught,” Whitworth said.
