4 MEN ARRESTED AFTER TAKEOVER HEIST, PURSUIT.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A takeover robbery of a cell-phone store turned into a chase through four west Palmdale shopping centers after deputies surprised the masked robbers as they came out a side door.

A 20-year-old ex-convict from Glendale was arrested after trying to carjack a vehicle from a woman waiting in a Taco Bell drive-through lane, and two Antelope Valley teenagers were caught in a field after jumping a shopping center wall.

``They were detained while trying to stuff money down gopher holes out there,'' Deputy Dave Jennings said.

Deputies and a sheriff's helicopter got to the Sprint store Tuesday while the robbers were inside after someone called 911 upon seeing the robbers get out of a car with two rifles, Jennings said. Almost simultaneously, the Palmdale sheriff's station got a silent-alarm call from the store.

Private citizens helped identify the fleeing suspects and tell deputies which way they went during the chase, officials said.

``It was great,'' said Sgt. Kyle Bistline, leader of the Palmdale Partners Against Crime unit, whose deputies participated in the arrests.

Armed with a .22 rifle and a .30-30 lever-action rifle, the robbers walked into the cell-phone store in the 800 block of Rancho Vista Boulevard about 7:50 p.m. Tuesday, pulled bandannas over their faces and herded the three employees and four customers into a back room, Jennings said. They made the manager lock the front door.

After scooping up cash and phones, they ran out a side door, where they encountered deputies.

Two robbers ran west across 10th Street West. The third ran north across Rancho Vista Boulevard.

The robbers dropped the rifles as they ran.

``They started dropping stuff as soon as they left the store: gloves, beanies, phones, sweat shirts,'' Jennings said.

At a Taco Bell on Rancho Vista Boulevard, the robber who ran north tried to open the passenger door of a vehicle in the drive-through lane and shouted at the driver to unlock it. When deputies came up, the robber ran along the boulevard under the Antelope Valley Freeway and deputies caught him in the shopping center east of there.

Meanwhile, the two who ran west were caught in a field after jumping the rear wall of the Amargosa Commons shopping center.

Arrested were Erin Mauldin, 18, of Lancaster; Edward Mouton, 18, of Palmdale; and Dennis Elliott, 20, of Glendale.

Mauldin and Mouton were booked on suspicion of robbery and other charges, deputies said. Elliott, who got out of prison April 28 after serving six months for vehicle theft, was booked on suspicion of robbery and a parole violation, records show.

Joe Vonna Washington, 19, of Palmdale, who deputies said was the getaway-car driver, was arrested near the stolen Toyota Camry the robbers got out of in the Crossing Palms shopping center. The car had been stolen the previous day in Palmdale, Jennings said.

Mauldin and Washington had been arrested in March in Lancaster on suspicion of burglary but were set free within days, records show. Mouton said he was a member of a local gang, deputies said.

Detectives are investigating whether the suspects have any connection with a May 3 robbery of a cell-phone store a block away, though there is no evidence of a link other than the crimes' similarity and proximity, deputies said.

In the May 3 robbery, two armed men held up a Verizon Wireless store on Trade Center Drive as it opened and fled in an employee's car. The car was found a little more than an hour later parked outside a Denny's restaurant on Palmdale Boulevard.