INDIANAPOLIS — Detectives with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrested a man for a series of attempted overnight robberies that occurred during the early morning hours of Monday, July 26 on the city's south side.
Officers said around 12:49 a.m. they were called to investigate an armed robbery at the BP gas station, located in the 4900 block of E. Thompson Road. When they arrived, officers confirmed an attempted armed robbery had occurred. That's when IMPD Robbery Unit responded to the scene to begin investigating.
Then at around 1:21 a.m. officers were dispatched to the 8010 block of S. Emerson Avenue to investigate a robbery located at the Speedway gas station. When officers arrived at the scene, they confirmed a second attempted armed robbery happened there, too.
A short time later, at about 1:30 a.m. officers were called to the 8900 block of S. Emerson Avenue to investigate another robbery at the Shell gas station. Officers arrived at the scene and confirmed a third attempted robbery there.
During an investigation, police learned that the description of the suspect was the same in all three robberies. He was described as a white male, about 40 to 50 years old, wearing a black t-shirt, jean shorts, with a silver handgun and driving a black Kia Soul. This led investigators to believe the trio of incidents were connected.
It was around that time at 1:30 a.m., while an officer was speaking with a victim, they found a white male who matched the description of the three robberies driving a black Kia Soul who pulled into the parking lot of the 8010 S. Emerson Avenue location.
The man officers observed was confirmed to be the suspect, identified as William Eland III. He was taken into custody.
Eland III was arrested for three counts of attempted robbery.
Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call the IMPD Homicide/Robbery Office at 317-327-3475 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.
