SUMMERVILLE - A 43-year-old handyman named Ronald didn't know why a deputy was running after a man down Bacons Bridge Road on Independence Day.
But he did know the deputy was losing the chase, and Ronald felt the need to lend a hand - and his pickup truck.
Ronald, who cited a fear of retribution in asking that his last name be withheld, pulled over and yelled at the deputy to climb aboard. With Deputy Eric Melendez clinging to the truck bed, Ronald steered his truck over a residential, dirt-surfaced side street near Summerville.
When he saw the suspect veer off the road and duck into a storage shed, Ronald pointed. Melendez leaped out and brought the man into custody at gunpoint.
The man, Ronald later learned, was wanted on charges of terrorizing a store clerk at knifepoint just moments before and stealing more than $2,200 in cash.
"I saw a good guy chasing a bad guy," Ronald said. "Officers help us all the time, so this was just an opportunity to help them."
Cedrick Miller, 31, of Dewees Lane in Summerville, was arrested on an armed robbery charge in connection with the incident at the Cricket Wireless store at 1001 Bacons Bridge Road.
The $2,229 that was stolen was either dropped or stashed at three points along the robber's escape route, deputies said. All of it was found.
Miller has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for criminal domestic violence, resisting arrest, threatening an official and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, according to the State Law Enforcement Division.
Maj. John Garrison, spokesman for the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, said that while he wouldn't recommend passers-by putting themselves in harm's way to help out, a truck ride provided welcome relief to a deputy running in 90-degree weather.
"A lot of what we do cannot be done without citizens assisting us," Garrison said. "This citizen did a fine job."
An incident report released Thursday by the Sheriff's Office revealed the events leading to the chase.
The store clerk, a 29-year-old woman, told deputies that the robber entered the store around 10:40 a.m. Wednesday. He looked at a cellphone for sale, but would not look at her, she said.
Something didn't seem right, the clerk said, so she hit the panic button.
The man then pulled out a knife and grabbed the clerk's shirt. He ushered her to door and ordered her to lock it.
He turned off the lights, then walked her to the cash register and said, "Give me the money." The clerk removed the drawer and dropped it, an attempt to give her and responding authorities more time.
In a back room, the robber found an envelope containing a cash deposit and some more money in a filing cabinet.
He ran out a back door, after which the clerk called 911.
Melendez, who responded to the call, saw Miller walking along Bacons Bridge Road. He was holding a cellphone and a "do-rag," which matched the clerk's description of the robber.
When Melendez tried to stop him, Miller ran down the road, then turned onto Danberry Drive.
That's when Ronald drove through, on his way to his home near Dorchester Road.
"The officer was trying to talk on his mike and give his location, so the guy was getting away," Ronald said. "I started flashing my lights and told him to get in."
Ronald saw Miller duck between two mobile homes on Danberry Drive and into a shed attached to one home.
After Miller was handcuffed, Melendez found loose cash on the shed's floor and an envelope of money behind a washing machine.
Ronald started walking down the road and found two more bunches of money - a pile of scattered $20s and a lump of $10s and $5s.
Deputies found a knife in a ditch.
"He gave up his freedom for just a little money," Ronald said. "But I got kind of a rush out of it."
Reach Andrew Knapp at 937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede.
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