Suspects in Metairie clothing store robbery named, including man who fell to death($500shirts)

http://www.nola.com/crime ^ | 4/8/18 | Laura McKnight

[BBell]

A LaPlace man has been charged with armed robbery in the holdup at a high-end Metairie clothing store that led to a police pursuit Wednesday night that left one man dead and two others in custody.

George Simon, 36, faces more charges in the case, said Joseph Lopinto, Jefferson Parish interim sheriff, at a news conference Thursday (March 8). According to officials, Simon confessed to the robbery and named his accomplice as Ron Walker, 53, who died after he jumped from an Interstate 10 overpass during Wednesday's police chase.

A third man in the car, Simon's stepson, 20-year-old Tahj Boatman, was not involved in the robbery, Lopinto said, but faces less serious charges in connection with the police chase.

Both Simon and his stepson were injured in the chase, with Simon suffering a dislocated hip, officials said. Simon received treatment at a local hospital before he was booked into the St. John the Baptist Parish jail.

The two robbery suspects entered Jeff's Haberdashery in Metairie, at 3321 Severn Ave., just after it opened around 10 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

The robbers ordered two staffers and a customer to the ground as they grabbed armfuls of expensive merchandise, including shirts that retail at $400 to $500, an employee said.

The stolen merchandise is valued at roughly $60,000, officials said Thursday, as they displayed some of the recovered clothing, along with an assault-style rifle used in the robbery.

Store employees told investigators that they recognized Simon from visits to the haberdashery during the past few years, Lopinto said.

Simon has a criminal history that includes thefts targeting high-end retail stores. Many of his prior arrests have been on drug and battery charges, but he was also booked in the 1990s with an attempted first-degree murder, Lopinto said.

[Professional]

“Simon has a criminal history that includes thefts targeting high-end retail stores. Many of his prior arrests have been on drug and battery charges, but he was also booked in the 1990s with an attempted first-degree murder, and was recently rumored to be considering a return to school and turn his life around Lopinto said.”

There, they missed that one part ya know!

[Flick Lives]

That would explain the bizarre description “assault-style” rifle in the article.
The jorno-gandist didn’t know what it was but, hey, scary!

—

Forget the scary gun. Those shirts on the table. They’re scary.

[sheana]

They look like something my grandma would’ve ripped up to make her quilts out of.

[GnuThere]

Those are amazing shirts - all they need is a leisure suit!