Standoff At Ohio GameStop Ends In Three Arrests

A standoff at a GameStop store in Solon, Ohio last weekend ended in the arrests of three men.

Lots of crazy stuff goes down under the roof of a GameStop store. Offensive PR stunts, unintentional piracy, people buying PS3s (kidding). What happened last weekend at a GameStop in Solon, Ohio, surely takes the cake, however: two men, allegedly armed, walked in and try to rob the store. Two hours, six police cars, one SWAT team and a botched escape later, the jig was up and the suspects were in bracelets.

Just before 8 PM on Saturday, Solon police got a call from the manager of a GameStop in Macedonia, Ohio that two men were holding up the Solon branch, wearing ski masks and hoodies and supposedly armed and dangerous, Cleveland news channel WKYC reported. Thankfully, the manager of the Solon branch had been on the phone with the manager of the Macedonia store when the two men walked in, which led to the Macedonia manager making the 911 call. Minutes later, six police cars were surrounding the store and blocking off the road leading to it. Shortly after that, the Solon SWAT team arrived on the scene. By then, only one of the suspects was still in the store – the other was allegedly trying to escape by climbing into the ceiling so he could drop down into the Mitchell’s Ice Cream shop next door and foot it from there.

At 8:50, both men (ice cream shop escape plan didn’t work, apparently) were ready to give themselves up. London McArthur and Javon Greer, both 19, have been charged with one count of aggravated robbery and one count of kidnapping. Christopher Roberts, also 19, who drove their getaway car and was posing as a customer in the store, was charged with one count of complicity to aggravated robbery. No shots were fired and nobody was injured. Solon police report that the suspects were armed with a pistol and BB gun.

The Solon GameStop seems to be unable to catch a break. Last weekend’s incident is apparently the second or third time the store has been robbed in the last year, according to an employee at the Borders across the street. On December 29 last year, an employee called police saying that two men had forced the employee and two customers into a back room and bound them in duct tape, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.