2 Men Convicted Of Robbing Cleveland MetroPCS Stores

CLEVELAND — Two Cleveland men have been convicted of robbing three MetroPCS stores and trying to rob a fourth, the Department of Justice announced. They were also convicted of shooting at an off-duty Cleveland police officer.

Shawn Ford, 20, and Charles Rogers, 24, were both convicted on multiple counts of Hobbs Act robbery and using firearms during a crime of violence. They will be sentenced on October 9.

The two men robbed MetroPCS stores on Kinsman Road (on March 21, 2018), Lorain Avenue (on March 25, 2018) and Broadway Avenue (also on March 25). They tried to rob a fourth store on Kinsman Road on March 27.

During the March 25 robbery of the Broadway Avenue store, the duo took more than $1,00 from the register, but were followed out of the store by an off-duty Cleveland cop, court documents said.

Outside the store, the cop identified himself as a police officer and ordered the men to stop. One of the men began firing his gun at the officer, court documents said. The men then escaped in a car.

About 30 minutes after the shooting, a patrolling police officer spotted a car matching the description of Ford and Rogers' vehicle. Police stopped the car and found both men inside. Officers also found a spent 9 mm round, blue latex gloves and clothing inside the car, court documents said.

Spent 9 mm shell casings were found outside the Broadway Avenue MetroPCS where the shooting had occurred, court documents said.

Authorities said the clothes they found inside the car matched outfits worn by suspects during the earlier MetroPCS robberies. Rogers was also wearing an electronic monitoring device with GPS capabilities on March 21, when the first robbery occurred.

The GPS put Rogers in the vicinity of the Kinsman Road store minutes before the robbery. After the robbery occurred, someone tampered with or took the device off Rogers, court documents said.

Cleveland Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive led the investigation into the robberies, with assistance from the Ohio Adult Parole Authority and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Crime Strategies Unit.