MIAMI – A man and three children were arrested Monday in connection with two robberies that led to a police chase in southwest Miami-Dade County.
Miami-Dade police originally took five people into custody after the chase ended in a crash at Miami MacArthur South Senior High School.
The suspects who were arrested were identified Tuesday as Charles Flowers Jr., 27, two 14-year-old boys and a 12-year-old boy. Local 10 News does not identify children younger than 16 who have not been charged as adults.
Flowers made his first court appearance Tuesday morning and was ordered held in lieu of a $10,000 bond. The juveniles were ordered to remain in juvenile detention until at least their next court appearance.
According to Miami-Dade police, the suspects crashed into the side of a building Monday morning at the high school in Naranja after snatching purses from two women in southwest Miami-Dade County.
The first robbery was reported by a 60-year-old woman at a bus stop on Southwest 200th Street and U.S. Highway 1.
Police said the suspects then drove to Southland Mall, where they snatched a purse from a 94-year-old woman in the parking lot. The woman, Kathleen Johnson, told Local 10 News that she suffered bruises on her arm and hand during the robbery.
"You can't let them overpower you and you have to stand up for yourself, don't you?" Johnson said. "And as I said, I fought him back. He tried to grab the purse, and then I turned and grabbed it back from him, and then he took it a second time."
Johnson said she hopes the boys involved in the robbery get help.
"I raised two boys and I feel sorry for their mothers if their mothers don't know what they're doing," she said. "I think they need counseling. But I don't want them to be turned loose so they can do it to someone else."
Police said no one else was injured in the robberies and police chase.