Wauwatosa Police Nab Suspects in Armed Robbery of Sussex Man

In a wild scene played out on the streets of Wauwatosa, a Sussex man chased two suspects he said had just robbed him with a gun in West Allis, and put the collar on them.

Taken into custody were a Wauwatosa man and a West Allis man, both 24.

According to police reports:

Shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, a Wauwatosa patrol officer was monitoring traffic on Glenview Avenue, parked facing east on West Hawthorne Avenue, a couple of blocks south of Blue Mound Road.

The officer saw a speeding car approaching from the south on Glenview, which made a sharp left turn right past him onto Hawthorne. Another speeding car followed the first and, seeing the squad car, the driver began to honk his horn and then yelled to the officer, “They just robbed us at gunpoint!”

Whipping his squad car around, the officer gave chase, called for assistance, and pulled the first car over about two blocks west on Hawthorne.

Over his loudspeaker, the officer ordered the men to get out and put their hands on their car. He covered them with a rifle until multiple backup units arrived to conduct a "high-risk stop."

The Sussex man who had pursued the suspects told Tosa police that he and his girlfriend had stopped at a gas station on Highway 100 in West Allis. He had gone inside to buy cigarettes, he said, and when he was returning to his girlfriend’s car, the two men pulled up beside him and the passenger got out, stuck a “hard, black metallic object” in his side and demanded his money.

He said the man took $225 from him, jumped back into the car, and the two fled. He ran to his girlfriend’s car, and they gave chase.

He said that during the chase, he saw something being tossed out the passenger window. The police report did not say that any gun, any object resembling a gun, or any other contraband was found on the suspects or in their car.

Wauwatosa police held the two men at the scene until West Allis police arrived to take custody of them. The West Allis Police Department has not responded to requests for details of the alleged crime or the results of a search for any suspected weapon.