By April Hunt
The Orlando Sentinel
METROWEST, Fla. — MetroWest’s experiment to hire off-duty Orlando police officers for extra patrols paid off early Tuesday when officers nabbed three teens who police say had just carjacked a 55-year-old woman.
The three were later charged in another armed robbery 14 minutes before the carjacking, accused of taking another woman’s purse at gunpoint.
“It is certainly a strong signal that MetroWest is a safe place and this program is working,” said Kevin Simback, president of the neighborhood homeowners association.
In March, the association hired a half-dozen off-duty officers for about $250,000 a year to supplement patrols.
“It’s obviously an expensive cost, but if they are in the right place at the right time, it’s going to benefit everybody,” Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones said.
Police reports show that having the extra eyes paid off when one of the off-duty units spotted the stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee on Hiawassee Road within five minutes of the call going out on police radio.
Authorities say the teens, one of them armed, had just robbed a woman of her purse and car keys as she was walking into her apartment.
The off-duty officers followed the Jeep and called for back up from the regular patrol. Police surrounded the stolen vehicle minutes later but ended up having to break into the Jeep because the teens refused to exit.
Max Philius, 19; Kevin Gillyard, 16; and Tavaris Sutton, 13, are charged with carjacking. All three live in Orlando.
Following an investigation, police then charged the three with robbing two other women at Cason Cove Drive and South Mission Road just before the carjacking.
In that case, police said Philius wielded a silver handgun, took one of the women’s purses and fled with the other two on foot toward Conroy Road.
“One of the officers involved said that this was a really good catch,” Jones said.
The robberies occurred a week after MetroWest held the largest single event in the city for National Night Out. The block party to promote crime prevention drew more than 7,000 people to the MetroWest Country Club on Aug. 7.
“The program is designed to deter this sort of thing from happening. But if it does happen, it’s great to know that these officers are there,” Simback said.
“Our objective is to have the officers visible so people think twice before they do any sort of criminal activity.”
Copyright 2007 Sentinel Communications Inc.