Police are pooling their information and developing what they describe as good leads as the number of violent robberies of small businesses grows across the Richmond region. Investigators from Richmond, where many of the robberies have occurred, have met repeatedly in recent days with their counterparts in suburban police departments to compare notes. The information-sharing sessions, as well as tips from residents, have enabled investigators to make progress in solving the cases, said Richmond police Cmdr. Steve Drew, who oversees operations in South Richmond, where the two most violent robberies have taken place.

Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood says “it’s a fair assessment” that the same men are responsible for some of the crimes that have left residents and merchants in fear.

The man charged with killing a car break-in suspect in Church Hill fired two shots, then chased him and fired four more times, according to courtroom testimony in Richmond yesterday. After hearing the testimony, a Richmond General District Court substitute judge certified to a grand jury charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in a felony against Eric G. Driver, 25. Judge Janipher W. Robinson said the grand jury will hear the case July 6.

In many states, newly discovered evidence of innocence can be taken years later to the same court in which an inmate was convicted so his name can be cleared. That’s what happened on Sept. 10, 2007, in Hampton Circuit Court after prosecutors learned that Teddy P. Thompson was innocent of a 2000 robbery. The conviction was tossed out, and Thompson was freed the same day.

Richmond police have arrested one of two people accused of assaulting and robbing a 70-year-old man on a downtown street last week. Trevelle Alexander Winn, 19, of the 2600 block of Lochaven Boulevard, is charged with robbery and aggravated assault. Police said that on April 15 at about 3:45 p.m., the two people approached the victim from behind as he was walking in the 100 block of East Broad Street. They pushed the man to the ground, struck him in the head and took his wallet, police said.

Richmond police were gathering forensic evidence and talking to people after a man was gunned down yesterday on East Leigh Street, between North 21st and North 22nd streets, near Jefferson Park. Police responded shortly after 4:30 p.m. to the 2100 block of East Leigh Street, where they found the man shot, Detective Ron Brown said. According to bystanders, the man had been trying to break into a woman’s car and was shot by an acquaintance of the woman. The man was transported to VCU Medical Center, where he died.

Violent and property crime collectively dropped 1.5 percent in central Virginia last year despite a worsening recession. Officials say that’s a positive sign for the region, considering that economic downturns tend to trigger increases in certain types of criminal behavior. A total of 39,159 major offenses were reported in 2008 in the 24 localities that make up the greater Richmond metropolitan region, down from the 39,760 offenses reported the year before, according to state police data analyzed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Spikes in street robberies, larcenies and aggravated assaults have fueled a slight increase in major crime so far this year in Richmond. Law-enforcement officials are paying close attention to a 15 percent increase in street robberies.

Ex-soldier gets 16 years for bank robbery War veteran who had traumatic youth apologizes for pulling gun In a voice turned hard from years of war and life on the streets, Matthew David Wilson begged forgiveness on the witness stand. “I know what that anxiety feels like,“ he told two Wachovia bank tellers who had testified that an armed robbery Wilson committed left them petrified and sleepless for days.

Wilson Sample Caldwell Colonial Heights police charge three suspects in home robbery Colonial Heights police charged two men with 20 counts each related to the robbery of a home early yesterday. A third man faces three counts. All three were being held in Riverside Regional Jail without bond. Ryan Patrick Wilson, 20, of the 65000 block of Woodlake Village in Midlothian and Daryl Lamonte Sample, 21, of the 1100 block of North Avenue in Hopewell each face charges including five robbery and five abduction counts.

Four street robberies in three hours yesterday around Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park Campus have police searching for a knife-wielding culprit. The holdups—three of which involved five student victims—are the first spate of robberies to plague the university community since VCU police and Richmond police arrested two suspects a month or more ago, acting VCU Police Chief Carlton Edwards said yesterday.

Chesterfield County police are searching for a man who robbed Dyson’s Store at 8109 River Road about 7 tonight. Police said the masked man entered the store, displayed a gun and demanded money from the register. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. No one was injured. The suspect is a black male, 6 feet tall and with a medium build. He wore a blue ski mask, blue jacket, white shirt, tan pants, black gloves and white tennis shoes.

Richmond police are investigating a series of street robberies of Virginia Commonwealth University students. Authorities have arrested one man and charged him in two of the eight robberies, all of which took place in the Fan District or on its outskirts from Jan. 13 through Sunday, with three of them on Sunday. VCU students were victims in seven of the robberies. Some of the crimes were carried out by a man and woman who stole items such as cell phones, purses and wallets. A gun was displayed in most or all of the cases.

A man was expected to survive after being shot eight times during an attempted robbery at a South Richmond housing project. The 39-year-old victim was hospitalized at VCU Medical Center in stable condition after yesterday’s 2:07 a.m. shooting, Richmond police Capt. Linda Samuel said. “He’s pretty lucky,“ Samuel said of the man, who was shot four times in the abdomen, twice in the right leg, once in the right hip and once in one arm.

A man was injured in a stabbing along Westover Hills Boulevard in South Richmond last night.