Charges piled up Tuesday for a 29-year-old Ohio man suspected in the carjacking of a North Myrtle Beach woman and the armed robbery of a Myrtle Beach CVS.
The man, wanted in connection with a carjacking and robbery in Horry County and kidnapping and robbery charges in Ohio, was arrested Monday night after eluding police for several hours in the woods along International Drive.
Robert Michael Barnes, 29, of Boardman, Ohio, was arrested about 9 p.m. Monday without incident after someone spotted him walking in the 4000 block of S.C. 90, Horry County police Sgt. Robert Kegler said Tuesday. The arrest came hours after police found a stolen vehicle abandoned along International Drive. Horry County police charged Barnes with failure to stop for blue lights and siren and possession of a stolen vehicle, Kegler said.
Barnes also is wanted in his hometown on two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of auto theft, according to Boardman police officials.
On Tuesday, Capt. David Knipes said Myrtle Beach police planned to charge Barnes with first-degree assault and battery, kidnapping and armed robbery.
Myrtle Beach police also released details about an armed robbery at a Myrtle Beach CVS in which Barnes is the suspect.
Police said the robber entered the store at 38th Avenue North and U.S. 17 Bypass and went to the pharmacy where he walked through the employee door, removed scissors from a box and held them at the neck of a 24-year-old woman while he demanded bottles of OxyContin, according to the report.
It was the woman's first day at work, and she told police she initially thought the incident was a joke, according to the report. The employee said she didn't know where the drugs were kept and the man pulled her to the prescription aisles and began a countdown for the pills.
Another employee gave him two bottles of OxyContin and he asked her where the needles were kept, according to the report.
The woman pointed to the shelf and she said the man took some before he pulled the hostage with him toward the front door.
During the incident, he yelled at customers that they should "not be a hero" before he released the hostage at the door and ran to a vehicle that had been stolen during a carjacking in North Myrtle Beach.
Horry County police used bloodhounds to search for Barnes for several hours Monday afternoon in a 4-mile wooded area along International Drive about 2 miles from S.C. 90, Kegler said. They ended their search about 6:15 p.m. Monday.
The search there began after Horry County police tried to stop a 2011 Toyota Avalon for speeding on Robert Grissom Parkway in Myrtle Beach, Kegler said.
The car continued onto International Drive and because the road was not safe, the pursuit was called off, police said.
The Avalon was later found close to S.C. 90 along International Drive near Ocean Bay Preserve, but the driver had fled into the woods, Kegler said.
Police said the car was taken just before 11 a.m. Monday from a woman at a North Myrtle Beach convenience store. The woman was at the gas pump at the Tiger Mart on Second Avenue North and U.S. 17, said Nicole Aiello, city spokeswoman.
A man in a van engaged the woman in conversation while she pumped gas, according to Aiello. After she finished pumping her gas and got back inside her car, the man came over, yanked her out of the vehicle and took her car, she told police.
The man left the van at the gas station and police later learned it had been reported stolen from Ohio, Aiello said.
North Myrtle Beach police plan to charge Barnes with receiving stolen goods valued at $10,000 or more; grand larceny, value of $10,000 or more; and first-degree assault and battery, Aiello said.
The incidents in Ohio occurred within several hours of each other on July 22 when a man held a store clerk hostage at a Circle K and stole cash, cigarettes and the clerk's vehicle, said Sgt. Glen Riddle with the Boardman Police Department.
The robber then walked into a drug store later that morning and held a 74-year-old woman hostage as he demanded narcotics from the store clerk. He fled in the hostage's van, Riddle said. The van is the same one found in North Myrtle Beach.
Barnes has previous drug use and shoplifting charges.
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