By Courtney L. Anderson
SHARON — A Sharon police sergeant chased a Sharon man down a cliff above Connelly Boulevard early Wednesday morning just after the man allegedly robbed a Walgreens clerk at gunpoint, police Chief Mike Menster said.
Silas Lee, 21, of 379 Prospect St. was arraigned on charges of robbery and resisting arrest and taken to Mercer County Jail after failing to post $50,000 bond.
Menster said that at about 5:15 a.m. Lee went into Walgreens, 900 E. State St., brandished a handgun and demanded the cashier give him money and cigarettes.
The clerk gave him an undisclosed amount of cash and a pack of Newports and Lee ran out of the store and south on Stambaugh Avenue, Menster said.
Store personnel immediately called 911 and police spotted Lee near the intersection of Stambaugh and Connelly within seconds of the call, Menster said.
Lee ran west on Edgewood Road and down over a steep hill at a bend in the road toward Connelly, Menster said.
Sgt. Joseph Gaston chased Lee and caught him in a creek at the bottom of what Menster called a “30-foot cliff” south of Connelly.
Lee struggled but Gaston put him in handcuffs and carried him over his shoulder up another incline to a waiting police cruiser on Connelly, Menster said.
Police found the cash and cigarettes on Lee and a 0.380-caliber semi-automatic pistol was found wrapped in a sweatshirt in bushes along Stambaugh Avenue, Menster said.
Lee was taken to the hospital at Sharon Regional Health System for treatment of bumps and bruises after tumbling down the hill, Menster said. Gaston received minor scrapes in the incident and some of his equipment was damaged, Menster said.
No one at the store was hurt, police said.
