Police arrest two of three robbery suspects

A manhunt on St. Helena Island on Tuesday afternoon resulted in the arrest of two St. Helena Island men suspected of robbing the Exxon station in Frogmore.

Beaufort County Sheriff's deputies were called to the gas station on Sea Island Parkway where the store manager told investigators that a man grabbed her from behind as she exited the store with a bank deposit bag.

She told deputies that the man, later identified as Samuel Jones, 24, pushed her and grabbed the bank deposit bag and ran into a wooded area across the street, according to a news release.

An oil-truck driver traveling down Sea Island Parkway told investigators that he saw Jones enter the wooded area before getting into a gray Honda sedan with two men, one of whom was later identified as 25-year-old Terone Josephus Smalls.

The truck driver was able to get a partial license plate number, and the information was broadcast to deputies in the area, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Deputies saw the sedan on Sea Island Parkway and stopped it.

After stopping, all three men ran from the vehicle, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Smalls was arrested by deputies at the vehicle, and a K-9 unit searched for the other two suspects.

Jones was found hours later hiding under a boat about a mile away, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The third suspect was not found and has yet to be identified.

Smalls is charged as an accessory after the fact of a felony. He was released from the Beaufort County Detention Center on Wednesday on his own recognizance.

Jones remains at the Beaufort County Detention Center on a $40,000 bond on a charge of strong arm robbery.