Crime & Safety
Police Respond To North Austin Store Burglary, Find Suspect Still Hiding in Building
Tyron Walker Swist, 21, managed to climb through ceiling tile to access adjacent store where he was still hiding, according to an affidavit.
NORTH AUSTIN, TX — A suspect accused of robbing a Cricket Wireless store in North Austin was arrested after police found he was hiding in the scene of the crime, according to a published report.
Police were called to the Cricket phone store on Manor Road and Rogge Lane late Friday after a report of a robbery there, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Upon their arrival, police found broken security bars, shattered glass, a cash register on the floor and a safe in the back room cracked open, according to the report.
In viewing security footage from a surveillance camera as part of their investigation, police also made another key find: Tyron Walter Swist, 21, running to the back room and peeking out from behind a door. Police dogs and backup units were dispatched to help apprehend the suspect, the Statesman reported.
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Upon further investigation, police found a ceiling tile had been removed. Swist had managed to climb through the makeshift portal into the adjacent Diamond Food Mart. A police canine detected the suspect hiding in a bottom shelf of a storage closet behind three boxes of food, according to an affidavit referenced by the newspaper.
Swist was promptly detained with $175 in cash and coins in his pocket, according to an arrest affidavit. The suspect wasn't done: Police said he kicked the window and doors of the police vehicle with such force once placed in the car that one of the doors was bowed from the hinges—which only added a charge of resisting transport, a Class A misdemeanor, to his charges.
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Swist was later found to have half-a-dozen outstanding warrants in his record, the affidavit referenced by the newspaper indicated. According to Travis County Jail records, charges leveled against Swist include multiple traffic offenses, possession of drug paraphernalia, burglary of a building and resisting arrest/transport.
He's now being held at the Travis County Jail on $25,000 bail.
>>> Read the Austin American-Statesman
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