SIKESTON — Police are investigating a strong-armed robbery report in Sikeston.
About 12:05 a.m. Feb. 26, an officer with Sikeston Department of Public Safety responded to DPS headquarters in reference to an assault and robbery that had just occurred. Upon arrival, the officer make contact with the male complainant who was limping and appeared to be upset, according to DPS reports. The man showed the officer both of his knees that had open, bleeding wounds. When asked what happened, the man told the officer, he was driving his vehicle eastbound on Greer Street to get fuel at a gas station located in the 800 block of East Malone Avenue.
As he was driving, the man said he grabbed $20 from his pocket and held it in his hand to use at the gas station. While en route, the man said he observed a man lying in the middle of Greer Street and another man standing near him who appeared to be getting onto a bicycle.
The complainant said he pulled up next to the man who was lying in the middle of the road near East Street and recognized him. The complainant rolled down his driver side window and asked if the man was OK. The complainant said the man then used expletives and lunged into the vehicle’s driver’s side window and grabbed the $20 from his hand. The man then ran away on foot and the other man on the bicycle rode away heading northbound and crossed East Malone Avenue, according to the report.
The complainant said he followed the two men who stopped behind a building on North Main Street. He drove up to the two men, rolled down his driver’s side window and told them he was going to contact the police and that he wanted his money back.
One of the men told the complainant to get of the vehicle and then opened the driver’s side door and grabbed him, he said. The complainant told police the man then threw him to the ground which is how he received the injuries to his knees. The man then tried to stomp on the complainant’s head. The complainant said he got up and tried to run away, and the man stole his phone during the second altercation.
The complainant said he ran toward a house, yelling for someone to call the police. He also said the second of the two men held an assault rifle during both altercations but never pointed it at him. The complainant said the two men rain away and then he drove to Sikeston DPS to report the incident.
The incident remains under investigation