Pawn Shop Burglary Suspects Captured

LONGVIEW — Longview police say two pawn shop burglars were captured Tuesday morning. At around 12:12 a.m., Longview Officers were dispatched to a business alarm at the Insta Cash Pawn shop at 1200 East Marshall Avenue. Sergeant David Hazel arrived within minutes and located two men with flashlights in the fenced-in area of the pawn shop, just east of the building. Sergeant Hazel saw that the two suspects were carrying chainsaws from a storage container located within the fenced area, and he demanded that the suspects stop.

According to police, both men ran from Sergeant Hazel, but he captured 28-year-old Byron Houston as he tried to escape. Responding officers located a second suspect, 24-year-old Ronald Gray, in the 1100 block of Lake Drive, and he was arrested without further incident. As officers investigated the scene, they found the fence to the outside storage area of Insta Cash Pawn had been cut and the padlock from the storage container had been broken off. Several chainsaws were located lying on the ground outside of the fenced in area, by the cut fence, and they were returned to Insta Cash Pawn. Both Houston and Gray are from Longview. They were booked into the Gregg County Jail for burglary of a building (State jail felony) and evading arrest (Class A misdemeanor).