Police: Robber who warmed bottle for baby arrested

Robert Coleman, 18, arrested at Arlington High

Updated: Friday, 20 Nov 2009, 10:54 AM EST
Published : Friday, 20 Nov 2009, 10:53 AM EST

Liza Danver

Andrew Bonner

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indianapolis Metro Police have arrested a man who allegedly heated up a bottle for a crying baby during a violent home invasion robbery. The infant's father is now speaking out about how the arrest came about.

Police arrested 18-year-old Robert Coleman Tuesday at Arlington High School where he is a junior. Officers got a tip after a television viewer saw surveillance video on the news.

Officers said Coleman admitted to the robbery.

Detectives said last Friday two men forced their way into a home in the 6100 block of East 21st Street just after 8:30 a.m. with intentions of robbing the family inside.

At one point, one of the robbers hit one of the adults over the head with a gun, police said.

Police said while the robbers were ransacking the house, a baby in the house started crying. That's when police said Coleman not only let a child in the house feed the baby, he actually warmed the bottle himself in the microwave

But police said it was also Coleman who held a gun to the head of the infant's father, Ronnell Griffie, and threatened to kill him.

"It escalated to 'Get on the ground! Get on the ground!' then, 'If you say a word, you're going to die, you're going to die right now'," Griffie recalled.

Griffie said that a few hours after a report of the robbery was shown on TV, a woman came to his friend’s house where the crime happened.

Griffie said the woman asked him a few questions about the robbers and then started crying uncontrollably. She said one of the robbers was her nephew, Robert Coleman, who lives with her. The woman said she had all the stolen items at her house. Griffie said she returned almost everything to him, right after she turned in her nephew to police.

Upon learning of Coleman's arrest, Griffie said, "I hope and pray he changes his life. It doesn’t have to be that way."

He added, "I'm just happy that he won't have the opportunity to do it to anyone else...You don't know what's going to happen in a situation. You don't know what a person is thinking. All you can do is talk to them and be nice to them."

Coleman is in jail on $30,000 dollars bond for burglary, robbery, criminal confinement and pointing a firearm. Metro Police are still looking for the other suspect.

LINK TO VIDEO

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/strange/police-robber-who-warmed-bottle-for-baby-arrested2