September 11, 2007 01:06 pm
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By 11:45 a.m. today, police had yet to confirm the identity of a suspect taken into custody for an early morning robbery of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Joplin following about a three-hour armed stand-off with officers.
But a woman, who arrived at the scene of the stand-off in the 700 block of South Geneva Avenue about an hour and a half before it ended at 10:39 a.m. today and was permitted by police to talk to the suspect once he was in custody, identified the suspect as her 22-year-old son, Paul C. White.
The woman, Janice Vaught-White, told the Globe she’d been contacted at work by police during the stand-off and rushed to the scene. Initially distraught that officers would not permit her to speak with her son while he was holed up in a shed behind a vacant residence at 721 S. Geneva Ave., she appeared relieved to some degree after her son surrendered peacefully without any shots being fired.
“He’s out. He’s OK. We’ll let you talk to him in a minute,” Sgt. Mike Hobson of the Police Department told Vaught-White seconds after her son had surrendered.
She was permitted minutes later to talk with the suspect inside a patrol car at the scene.
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Photos
Globe/Roger Nomer
A police officer clears equipment from the scene of a morning standoff at Seventh and Geneva in Joplin. Behind the officer is the wooden shed where the suspect took shelter from police.