Man who robbed Broadway jewelry store linked to recent bank robberies

Thanks to a woman acting on her suspicions, Wichita police were able to quickly catch a man who robbed a jewelry repair store this week.

But there was an additional surprise when the officers stopped the man’s car about a half hour after Kim Chi Jewelry Repair near 21st and Broadway was robbed Tuesday morning.

Wichita police Lt. Todd Ojile said evidence found in the vehicle linked the man to four bank robberies in Wichita last month. The cases were the robbery of two Fidelity Bank branches on Nov. 3, a Fidelity branch on Nov. 21 and an Intrust Bank branch on Nov. 27, Ojile said.

The 24-year-old man was waiting for the owner of Kim Chi to open the business Tuesday, Ojile said, and confronted him with a knife. The owner of the business pulled out a gun and a struggle ensued, during which three or four shots were fired.

“They were fired up into the roof and into the building” at 2038 N. Broadway, Ojile said.

The robber eventually wrested the gun from the owner and ordered him inside the business, where he took cash from the owner. The owner’s wife was also with him but had stayed outside, Ojile said. When the robber stepped outside to check on the wife, the owner closed the back door on him.

The suspect then drove away. When officers responded to the report of shots fired at the business, a woman told them she had become uneasy as she watched the suspect’s behavior prior to the robbery.

She gave officers photos she had taken of the suspect’s vehicle. The officers sent out the photos and a car description.

An officer spotted the suspect’s car about 30 minutes later near 17th and Spruce and took a suspect into custody.

The photos “were huge” in breaking the case, Ojile said, including one that showed a partial tag number.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Man who robbed Broadway jewelry store linked to recent bank robberies."