Man wanted for assault is arrested in N. Ga.

By Angie Thompson/senior reporter

TIFTON June 20, 2008 08:29 pm

— A 27-year-old man released from prison in April after serving 10 years for a bank robbery here and wanted by police here for the May assault of a Tifton man is being held in the Clayton County Jail after his early Friday morning arrest on armed robbery charges.
According to the Clayton County Police Dept., Jarvis Reddick was arrested at a Days Inn in Forest Park and charged with armed robbery, theft by receiving and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Reddick has four warrants pending here, including armed robbery, kidnapping and auto theft in the May case in which Veoliver “Cadillac” Curry was pistol-whipped, tied up with duct tape, robbed and had his car stolen. Two people, Andrew Hazel Scott, 21, and Victoria Kathenae Battle, 27, both of Tifton, were arrested shortly after that incident.
Det. Shane Benefield of the Tifton Police Dept. said Friday that the local investigation is continuing.
“We are definitely investigating whether he’s (Reddick) is involved in additional crimes here,” Benefield said.
Benefield expects Reddick will be brought back to Tifton at some point for questioning by detectives.
The incident report in the Clayton County case states that a 44-year-old man who works for Carpet Liquidators in Forest Park was approached in the store Thursday by a man wearing a hat with glitter, a white shirt with multi-colored stripes and blue jeans. The man told police that the robber walked around in the store alone and then asked the employee to see some carpet in the back of the building. He told an officer that the offender got behind him and placed a gun to his head and demanded the man give him money. The man said he gave the offender his wallet that contained approximately $290 and a Nokia cell phone worth $150.
The employee told officers that the offender then tied his hands with duct tape and ordered him to the ground. The offender then asked the employee where the rest of the money was and the employee told him there was no more. The man said the offender went back to the front of the store and was rambled through the desk when a witness walked in and the offender ran. A witness saw a man matching the offender’s description running across the parking lot from Denny’s Restaurant and into a room at the Days Inn.
Officers arrived at the motel room and knocked on the door several times when a woman answered the door. They could hear the shower running and then asked the woman if anyone else was in the room and, according to the report, she replied that her “cousin’s friend” was in the shower. She was then escorted away by another officer. Officers, with weapons drawn, then yelled commands for the person in the shower to come out with hands up. The bathroom door opened and, according to the report, Reddick came out of the bathroom with his hands up and got down on the floor as ordered.
When an officer asked Reddick why he was so sweaty, the officer stated that Reddick explained he had just done 500 push-ups as he was working out next to the pool. When Reddick was asked why his muscles were not “pumped,” the officer stated that Reddick said it was because the cold shower he had taken reduced his swollen muscles. One officer noted that although Reddick’s body was wet, the towels on the side of the shower in the rest room were still folded and none of the bars of soap had been opened or used.
A witness who saw the male and female suspects reported that she saw the female, carrying a bag, run from the room where Reddick was located downstairs to another room after Reddick went into the room where he returned and was subsequently arrested. The witness said that when the woman returned to the room where Reddick was located, she was not carrying the bag. A search of the second room was conducted and police found a woman’s purse lying under one of the chairs next to the air conditioning unit. Inside the purse, the report stated, was a female’s Georgia driver’s license and two semi-automatic handguns. Police also found between the bed’s mattress and box spring some clothing believed to belong to Reddick. Police also found a handwritten note that advised the recipient that the holder of the note had a gun and that the recipient of the note was being robbed.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.