Huntsville OPP has arrested three people following an armed robbery.
Police received a call to the Rainbow Inn on King William Street around 1:20am on Friday morning.
Two suspects entered the business with what appeared to be real guns. The employee on duty was assaulted before the pair fled the scene. He was taken to hospital by Muskoka EMS for treatment of minor injuries.
A short time later police found and arrested a total of three suspects.
Owner of the motel Kaushal Gandhi says his employee had shut down the motel at 10:00pm Friday night. But he says even though they were closed for the night, the motel’s policy is to let people in that are looking for a room.
“Both men were at the door and he opened it,” says Gandhi. “They had a bag with them. My employee sat down and woke the computer up from sleep mode and all of a sudden they were flashing an imitation gun at him.”
At the time the employee didn’t know it was a fake. They hit the 27-year-old man and took the till containing $2,000.
Gandhi and his family were visiting the Toronto area at the time, but got the call and returned to Huntsville right away.
“The police got there very quickly, within two or three minutes,” he confirms. “They were able to look at the video and by the time I got to Huntsville at around 5:00am, they had people in custody.”
Gandhi is relieved his employee is okay.
“He has a little pain but we are trying to keep him comfortable,” he says.
He and his family bought the motel just about two years ago and he says they have enjoyed how peaceful Huntsville has been.
“Everyone we talk to about what happened is so shocked that this has happened here,” he says.
Charged are Tatum Ogden, 32, of Toronto, Jordan Morrow, a 28-year-old from Toronto and Sukhpreet Singh, a 24-year-old woman from Brampton.
Ogden faces six charges including a pair of weapons offences, assault causing bodily harm, possession of cocaine, obstructing a police officer and failure to comply with recognizance.
Morrow faces a total of four charges including possession of an imitation weapon for a dangerous use, robbery using a firearm, assault causing bodily harm and failure to comply with a probation order.
Singh faces two weapons charges; using an imitation weapon and robbery using a firearm.
All three will have a bail hearing tomorrow at the Ontario Court of Justice.
(A press release from the OPP reported the crime occurred on Friday morning )