Deputies say armed robber point gun at child

DELTONA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 - Three people are in custody after an armed robbery was thwarted when the victims rammed the suspects' pickup truck to prevent them from getting away, deputies say. Other than a few bumps and bruises, there were no serious injuries.

Volusia County Sheriff's investigators are questioning the suspects and getting ready to prepare charging affidavits for their crimes, which included pointing a gun at a 2-year-old child. 

The incident began at around 11:50 a.m. Friday morning in Deltona, when an armed stranger hopped into an SUV parked at the Winn Dixie plaza on Howland Boulevard. There were two women and a child in the SUV. According to the victims, the intruder pointed a gun at the child and demanded that the women hand over their jewelry and personal belongings.

The victims got into a tussle with the suspect after he grabbed one of their cell phones, prompting the suspect to jump out of the vehicle and run to a waiting pickup truck occupied by two people. As the pickup truck fled the scene on Howland Boulevard, the victims gave chase in their SUV, jumped a median and rammed the truck a few hundred yards away from the original crime scene.

Following the crash, the suspects fled on foot and the search prompted Deltona High School to briefly go into lock-down mode. By 12:18 p.m., responding deputies had rounded up the three suspects -- including one who was nabbed by a Sheriff's K-9. While the child wasn't hurt, the two adult victims and the suspects all sustained minor injuries. None of the injuries, however, were serious enough to require immediate medical treatment.

The names of the defendants and their charges were not immediately known.