Campus robbery suspect in custody

CHAMPAIGN – Champaign police arrested an 18-year-old man Friday night after an armed robbery and a chase that led to a search of a multistory apartment building on the University of Illinois campus.

One man robbed a 21-year-old at around 4 p.m. Friday near Sixth Street and Springfield Avenue, according to Champaign police Chief R.T. Finney. The victim, who was not hurt, called police, and an officer found a man matchng the description of the robber at around Third and Healey streets and chased him, following the man to the parking garage of the apartment building at 512 S. Third St., C, Finney said.

The suspect went in the building and, for a time, police were not sure whether he had come back out. They closed off entrance to and exit from the 160-apartment building and began to search for the man, ultimately finding him in the lowest level of the garage, Finney said.

Police arrested Terrance Gowder, 18, whose address was unknown.

Thirty to 40 officers were involved in the incident, Finney said, including the Champaign Special Weapons and Tactics team and officers from the Champaign County sheriff's office and the UI and Urbana police departments.

No one was injured, Finney said. Police allowed residents back into the building at about 9:30 p.m.

The man was not armed when police found him, Finney said, adding officers then found a gun believed to have been used in the robbery under a car in the garage.

The man arrested had money that was believed to have been taken in the robbery, Finney said.

The apartment building was difficult to search, Finney said.

"It's a four-story building with a number of people moving in and out" on commencement weekend at the UI, he said. "It's a complicated, large building."

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