This article was originally published in the Wise County Messenger on Dec. 27, 2014. Photo submitted.
Four men spent Christmas in the Wise County Jail after being arrested just blocks away from the Bridgeport convenience store that two of them robbed at gunpoint.
Pedro Ibarra-McDonald, 18, and Julio Betancourt, 18, both of Bridgeport, are currently being held on bonds of $35,000 and $30,000, respectively, for aggravated robbery.
Ibarra-McDonald was also charged with possession of greater than or equal to 28 grams of a controlled substance as well as possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana.
Around 9:50 p.m. Wednesday, Ibarra-McDonald and Betancourt entered the West Side Grocery store on East Cates Street in Bridgeport brandishing handguns and shouting at the store clerks. They took all the money in the cash register, as well as a case of beer, according to Bridgeport Police Chief Randy Singleton, who was called to the scene.
“All they said was, ‘Give us the money!’ over and over,” Singleton said, recounting footage from the store’s security cameras Wednesday night.
“One [man] robbed the cashier, who slowly took the cash tray out of the register and put it on the counter, while the other stole the beer and kept a lookout,” Singleton said.
The two thieves fled the scene on foot but were found hiding out behind a house in the 700 block of Crittendon Street less than an hour later. They had met up with two other men, who were also arrested, but on unrelated charges.
Jake Harris 