By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
A 17-year-old Killeen man is behind bars in the Coryell County jail on $160,000 in bonds, with three juveniles detained and sent to the Rockdale Juvenile Detention Center after a Tuesday morning burglary.
Davonte Makeith Brooks, 17, was arrested by police for engaging in organized criminal activity and burglary of a habitation, and another charge of burglary.
Brooks also had a nisi warrant with the Bell County Sheriff’s Office for evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle. In May, Brooks had been arraigned for that charge and at one point had been held by Bell County on a $75,000 bond.
The juveniles with Brooks were two 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old, said Sgt. Martin Ruiz with the Copperas Cove Police Department. They were sent to Rockdale, Ruiz said, because the juvenile detention center in Bell County was full.
Shortly after 11 a.m. on Tuesday, a resident in the 200 block of East Avenue B alerted Copperas Cove police to a possible burglary in progress.
“We received a call that a neighbor had seen some kids walking around the house, and it looked kind of suspicious, like juveniles, so she went outside and saw them walking around her neighbor’s house,” Ruiz said.
The woman then went inside her home to call police, and while waiting for authorities to arrive, she went back outside, Ruiz said. She noticed that the neighbor’s front door was open, and that’s when she realized the house had been burglarized.
“When she was standing there, one of the burglars ran out and saw her. She still had her cell phone in her hand, so he snatched it from her, pushed her back and took off running,” Ruiz said. “A little bit later, we were able to locate them, using the description of the vehicle she gave us, we were able to stop them within moments.”
A door frame of the residence was damaged, with a laptop, saxophone and cell phone, valued at $2,200 altogether, being stolen.