Witnesses help nab suspect

Apparently, the getaway wasn't planned out as well as the robbery.

On Wednesday morning, a man robbed a woman at gunpoint as she was getting out of her car in an East Bay Street parking garage. Police got the call at 9:24 a.m.

By 9:29 a.m., said armed robber was in custody.

This is how police reports say it went down: The woman had just arrived for work and was getting her things out of the car when a man in a white T-shirt and black bandana covering his face approached her.

"Give me your bags," the man said.

The woman tried to back away, but the man grabbed her, sticking a gun in her face. She deflected the gun and a shot was fired into the garage ceiling. Then the guy took off running, carrying the woman's purse and laptop computer.

Patrolman J.G. Jackson was nearby when the call came in. When he reached the garage, he found a man standing on the street who said, essentially, he went that-a-way. Jackson put the word out over the radio and took off in pursuit.

By then, another officer was on the scene and he met another witness on East Bay, who heard a woman scream and saw the guy running away.

Then Jackson met a third witness who said the guy had just run between two apartments near Drake Street.

Obviously this was not a real popular guy in his own neighborhood -- at least on Wednesday.

In all, witnesses directed police on every turn in the fleeing robber's escape, and conveniently even reported which bush the guy had ditched his gun in. Within a minute, another officer arriving on the scene, R.J. Feeters, spotted a suspect and chased him down.

"We had great citizen participation," said Lt. Kevin Boyd, Charleston Police Team 1 commander. "He had family in the area. If we had not caught him when we did, he could have made it inside and he would have been safe."

The suspect, Nathaniel R. Simmons of America Street, was caught with the woman's purse stuffed down a pant leg.

From 911 call to arrest, elapsed time: five minutes.

Simmons, 21, is on youthful-offender parole for a second-degree burglary charge. When they put him in a patrol car, Boyd said Simmons was belligerent, and predicted, "I'll be right back on the street."

As of late Wednesday night, Simmons was still in the Charleston County Detention Center.