Woman injured, robber shot in Winder armed robbery

The incident happened at about 10:30 p.m. at the China Wok restaurant at 39 E. May St.

Gwinnett Police Cpl. David Schiralli said in an interview Saturday that officers with his department’s Crime Suppression Unit had followed the carload of teens into Winder after receiving information from robbery investigators who learned that the car and its occupants might have been involved in a series of Gwinnett robberies.

“They began doing surveillance on the vehicle and the suspects sometime last night,” Schiralli said. “They followed the suspects to a shopping center located in Winder. There, they observed the vehicle drive to the rear of the building. At that point, they believed an armed robbery might occur. They contacted Winder police to let them know what we had and what they were capable of. Officers from both departments set up a perimeter around the building in case there was an armed robbery.

“The five suspects exited their vehicle and entered the rear door of the China Wok restaurant. Officers who were watching from the front of the business could see the people inside the restaurant. They saw the suspects enter from the back door and come to the front. They had bandanas over their faces. The officers also saw that the suspects were armed with handguns, and one had a baseball bat.

“The suspect with the baseball bat immediately began to strike the female employee inside the business… multiple times. Once the officers saw that, they rushed to apprehend the suspects inside the store. The suspects saw the officers and ran back out the rear of the business, at which point we had officers at the rear and began to apprehend them.

“One of our officers from the Crime Suppression Unit challenged one of the suspects who had a gun. He gave the command to stop and to drop his gun. The suspect ignored the officer’s command and made an aggressive movement toward the officer. The officer feared for his safety and shot the suspect."

The wounded robber went down and the other four were taken into custody without further incident, he said. The suspects were turned over to Winder police.

Arrested were Jonathan Manning, 18, of Dacula; Maurice Bonar, 17, of Auburn; Donavan Green, 17, of Lawrenceville; Kenneth Ketcham, 17, no address available; and a 16-year-old male for whom no address was available.

According to a Winder Police Department press release, all five suspects were charged with aggravated assault and armed robbery.

Schiralli said Winder also called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to review the shooting of the suspect. In addition, the Gwinnett Police Department also will undertake an internal investigation to determine if the shooting was justified and procedures were followed.

“We have our own deadly force incident team,” he said. “Because it was their jurisdiction, we also let them investigate or call in the GBI.”

The woman injured during the robbery was taken to an area hospital. The wounded suspect, identified as Ketcham, was taken to Athens Regional Hospital, Schiralli said. His injuries are not considered life-threatening.