Vicksburg Police Detective Billy Brown, left, detains John Larry Hedges, 22, while Vicksburg Police Officer Bobby Jones secures the driver of the vehicle that police pulled over on Belva Drive after an armed robbery at Best Inn on South Frontage Road. (The Vicksburg Post/C. Todd Sherman)

[07/23/02]Police set up a roadblock on Belva Drive Monday and arrested two Vicksburg residents a few hours after an armed robbery at a North Frontage Road motel.

John Larry Hedges, 22, 679 Belva Drive, and Shanna Keyes, 31, 780 U.S. 61 North, were were taken into custody at 1:25 p.m. near Blue Lake based on information from the robbery scene.

They were in a red Mitsubishi Mirage about 100 yards from the apartment complex where officers had set up surveillance, waiting, they said, for Hedges to return.

The holdup at Best Inn, 2390 S. Frontage Road, was reported at 11:03 a.m.

Hedges is accused of robbing the motel’s clerk and Keyes with driving the car as the two were attempting to leave the scene of the arrest, the spokesman said. It was not clear whether police think Keyes was at the robbery scene.

Vicksburg Police Capt. Mark Culbertson said authorities got a tag number from the scene. “Let’s just say we’re familiar with the registered owner,” he added.

Police tracked the green Lincoln described by witnesses at the hotel as the getaway car to the apartment on Belva Drive. From across the street, police watched Hedges and Keyes got into the Mitsubishi with a suitcase and leave.

Less than a hundred yards away, several officers waited around a bend in the road to stop the car. Police recovered an undisclosed amount of money and a pistol from the vehicle, Culbertson said.

Hedges was charged with armed robbery and Keyes with accessory after the fact.

Monday’s holdup was the second in Vicksburg in less than a week. Wednesday, Leroy Guice, 20, no address available, was arrested and charged with armed robbery following a mugging in Ford subdivision.

Jamie Rodrigues Woods, 18, 237 Smith Road, was arrested the next day and also charged in the robbery at rifle-point. Both were being held without bond.

Armed robbery carries a sentence of up to life in prison.