THOMASVILLE, Ga. — Three suspects with Colquitt County addresses are in the Thomas County Jail charged with a Monday night armed robbery. The individuals are believed to be responsible for a pattern of armed robberies in Thomasville and Tifton in recent weeks.

“There is a fourth person at large,” Capt. Steven Jones, Thomas County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, said Tuesday morning.

The owner of O&M Foodmart, 1527 E. Jackson St., closed the store and turned onto nearby North Pinetree Boulevard about 11:30 p.m. As he drove along Pinetree, he was forced by a vehicle to stop in the 1300 block, according to reports.

“The robbery occurred in the street,” Jones said.

At gunpoint, an undetermined amount of cash was taken from the store owner, who got a description of the vehicle and a tag number.

Thomasville Police responded. As officers were speaking with the victim, the silver Honda Accord described by the victim passed by. Police lost the vehicle on U.S. 84 East near Libby Lane.

An off-duty sheriff’s deputy saw the Honda turn onto Libby Lane and notified another deputy, who saw the car leaving the area. The deputy activated blue lights and siren on his vehicle and was struck by the fleeing Honda.

The Accord turned onto U.S. 84, with the deputy in pursuit. Several law enforcement vehicles that joined the pursuit took evasive measures to avoid being struck by the suspects’ car.

The Honda left the highway and traveled back onto the road several times. A deputy saw a car door open, indicating the occupants were about to ditch the vehicle and flee on foot.

The officer forced the car into a ditch, and it crashed on private property. The suspects were taken into custody.

Charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault and kidnapping are:

• Travaris Deshon Walden, 20, 410 Seventh St. N.W., Moultrie

• Xavier Leon Greene, 19, 621 Second St. S.E., Moultrie

• Nathaniel Banks, 18, 205 Dennis Powell Road, Norman Park

Cash taken from the victim had not been recovered Tuesday morning. A firearm was recovered.

“The deputies were fearless in their perseverance to get these criminals off the street,” Jones said.

Jailed suspects — and the one at large — are believed to be the same people recently committing armed robberies in Tifton and earlier in Moultrie, according to Capt. Maurice Holmes, Thomasville Police Department Criminal Investigations Division commander.

The robberies were being committed in a pattern in Tifton and in Thomasville — Tifton on Monday nights and Thomasville on Wednesday nights.

Holmes said that as the two cities stepped up patrols on the nights the cities were hit in the past, the incidents began to take place on different nights, such as the Monday armed robbery in Thomasville.

The commander said evidence recovered in the Monday incident is “dead on” with other stickups, but he would not elaborate.