Armed SWAT teams descended on a quiet neighborhood in Franklin, Massachusetts, Friday morning as police searched for three people they said were involved in an armed robbery across the border in Rhode Island.
People were ordered to shelter in place for a time, and even after it was lifted, one suspected armed robber remained at large, police said. A vehicle carrying three people who are suspected to be involved crashed.
Two people were taken into custody, but a third remained on the loose.
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An armed home invasion had been called in on Blackstone Street in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, at about 2:30 a.m., police said. A 29-year-old man and a 21-year-old man were found at the home bound in duct tape but uninjured.
"The door was kicked in and the apartment was entered by two individuals that were armed, and they were robbed at gunpoint, after they were duct taped," Woonsocket Police Chief Thomas Oates said.
The robbers drove off, crossing the Massachusetts border, where they crashed their getaway car into a telephone pole on Washington Street in Franklin, police said.
"It was a substantial crash. Airbags were deployed, they fled the vehicle into the woods," Oates said.
One suspect surrendered immediately. A second went door to door looking for help and was even caught on a doorbell camera, according to police.
A neighbor who didn't want to give their name said the man also came to his back door asking to call his mom because he had been in an accident.
"We heard the doorbell ring and so we looked out the window and we saw him, so we didn't open the door obviously," he said. "But it was a little nerve-racking."
The man said he tried to keep him talking while his wife called police.
Franklin Police Chief Thomas Lynch said, "Of course, he fit the description of exactly who we were looking for, and he absconded back into the woods."
Police arrested that second suspect a short time later. The third suspect remains on the run.
"We do not believe that that individual is in the area any longer," Lynch said.
