The Daily Times

Two Maryville men are behind bars in Crossville after allegedly robbing a pharmacy and leading Crossville police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 40 on Sunday.

Jonathan Aaron Dale Reynolds, 28. 118 Dewberry Drive, and Arnulfo Ray Canales, 3532 Garner Circle, were arrested by the Crossville Police Department.

Both Canales and Reynolds were charged with robbery, simple possession, tampering with evidence, evading arrest and intent to deliver or sell a controlled substance. Reynolds had an additional charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, according to police.

Both suspects were held without bond on the robbery charges.

The incident began when a man walked into a Walgreens pharmacy in Crossville around 6:30 p.m. Sunday and demanded drugs.

The suspect, identified by police as Reynolds, handed the pharmacist a note indicating the types of narcotics he wanted and then told the pharmacist he had a gun, according to a Crossville Police Department report.

After the pharmacist handed over the narcotics, the suspect left the store and got into a gray 2002 Mercury being driven by Canales, according to witnesses who were pointing to the car as police responded to the scene.

When Canales realized he had been identified, he began traveling north on Highway 127 (Main Street) at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, the report said.

Cop leaves church

Crossville Detective Gene Hall, a 17-year police veteran, was at church but on call when he heard about the robbery over the radio. He quickly jumped into his police cruiser and began to pursue the suspects, leading the chase.

Canales then turned and continued eastbound on Interstate 40.

“It was a very dangerous chase, they were driving erratically, passing on the shoulder and acting a fool,” Hall said.

The suspects were tossing empty pill bottles out the window, according to Hall. He saw the gray Mercury turn into the rest area at mile marker 324, but was going too fast to follow them.

“Other units were right behind me, so I radioed back that they were going in the rest stop, and by the time I turned around and got back Chief David Beaty was standing over them with a 12-gauge shotgun on them; they weren’t going anywhere,” Hall said.

A Crown Royal bag containing 340 morphine tablets of various milligrams, 95 Oxycodone 30-milligram tablets and a syringe was allegedly found on Reynolds, according to the report.

Also, 60 Oxycodone 30-milligram tablets were found in the area of the arrest where they were thrown by the suspects, the report said.

You must be logged in to Facebook to comment. If you're not logged in to Facebook, a login window will open when you click "comment". Or you can log in now. You may need to refresh your page after logging in via that link.