GLENDALE, Wis. — A Milwaukee man was recently charged in connection to an armed robbery at Bayshore's Qdoba, which lead to a police standoff after hiding in the building's ceiling.
According to a criminal complaint, 18-year-old Marqavion Williams admitted to stealing his grandfather's handgun and attempting to rob the restaurant because he "needed money for a car."
Williams is facing the following charges: armed robbery, false imprisonment, failure to comply with officer's attempt to take person into custody, felony bail jumping, criminal damage to property (less than $2,500), and carrying a concealed weapon.
Glendale police officers were dispatched to an armed robbery around 10:45 p.m. at the Qdoba on Silver Spring Drive on Monday, March 13. Upon arrival, officers saw the lights were off and notice three men retreat into the kitchen after noticing police were on the scene.
An assistant manager told officers the subjects could be seen climbing into the ceiling in the kitchen area on surveillance video.
Glendale police requested assistance from the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department SWAT after two subjects refused to come down from the ceiling. Several rounds of pepper balls were deployed into the ceiling to get the subjects to come down. Around midnight, 40MM impact rounds were then used to create holes in the ceiling tiles to make the pepper balls more effective, the complaint says.
After police learned the defendant, Williams, was one of the two subjects in the ceilings, they tried to call him 48 times over the course of two hours with no answer. Law enforcement then texted Williams and he responded "he was afraid and sorry for what he had done." He also said, "he did not mean to hurt anyone and just wanted to go home." However, the complaint says he still refused to come down.
A 16-year-old girl and Williams were both taken into custody after they fell from the ceiling in an adjoining vacant building. The complaint says the two were able to get into the vacant unit by making a hole in the drywall. A handgun was found in the hiding space.
During an interview with police, a witness said he went to the bathroom and found two subjects inside wearing ski masks. One of the subjects had a handgun pointed at him and said, "I don't want to do it but I'll shoot you." When the witness tried to walk slowly, the subjects said, "We need the money, need to get in the safe, we know there's a safe."
The witness walked to the manager's office and "felt something pressed against his back." He did not open the safe but told them there was money in the registers. When all three of them went to the front of the store, the witness saw the police and ran outside.
When Williams was interviewed by police, he said he went to Qdoba with the girl because "they needed money for a car." The complaint says Williams tried to buy a car with fake money and the seller threatened to harm him if he didn't get the rest of the money. However, in a second interview with police, Williams said the threat from the car seller was not why he did the robbery and that he "would have done it regardless."
Prior to the robbery, Williams said they went to Qdoba earlier in the morning to "scope out" the restaurant. They then hid in the bathroom and waited for all the employees to leave to get the manager alone.
As for the handgun, Williams admitted he took it from his grandfather and that he was the one who left it behind in the ceiling, according to the complaint.
Williams appeared in court on Saturday where a cash bond was set at $25,000. He returns to court on March 28 for a preliminary hearing.
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