NEMOURS —
Mercer County deputies who were seeking a breaking and entry suspect Thursday instead found a man who ran into a local store and hid over its coolers when he had no reason to do so.
A search started in the Nemours area approximately 12:30 p.m. when a suspect in a breaking and entry case was sighted, said Cpl. S.A. Sommers of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department. The male suspect fled on foot.
Deputies thought they had found him when an adult white male at the Nemours Grocery saw sheriff’s department cruisers pass the story. The clerk on duty, who declined to give her name, said the man had just bought a pack of cigarettes and a newspaper when he saw the cruisers. He cursed and ran into the back of the store.
“I told him ‘I heard that. You hurt my virgin ears,’” she recalled afterwards. Mercer County 911 was called about the suspicious behavior.
Deputy J.D. Ellison, the arresting officer, was the first on the scene, Sommers said later. More units from the sheriff’s department and the West Virginia State Police converged on the store. They thought the breaking and entry suspect had been located, but the man turned out to be somebody else.
“He thought he had warrants and he ran, but he didn’t have them,” said Sgt. W.A. Pendleton of the state police.
“This idiot sees the cruiser, leaves his kids and goes hide in the ceiling,” Sommers said. Three little girls were left in a pick-up truck parked in front of the store.
Deputy W.E. Rose entered the crawl space above the store’s coolers and retrieved the suspect, who turned out not to be the man they had been seeking.
Arlis Cecil Dempsey Jr., 32, of Green Valley did not have any outstanding warrants, but he was charged with three counts of child neglect creating a substantial risk of injury or death, and one charge of obstruction, Sommers said.
The children were taken from the scene by the state police and turned over to child protective services, Sommers said.
“He wasn’t wanted at all until he did this,” he said. “He just thought he was.”
The search for the breaking and entry suspect was continuing Thursday evening.
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June 17, 2011
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