Jewelry

Police release ID for robbery suspect killed in Conroe jewelry heist - Chron.com

Police have identified the would-be robber killed Monday in a Conroe jewelry store heist as a 21-year-old man. 

Javian Jackson was one of four thieves who burst into a Conroe West strip center store and exchanged shots with employees in the brazen broad daylight robbery. 

After the criminal crew made their mid-day entry into Jeff's Jewelry, store owner Jeffery Turner Jr. reached for his AK-47, intending to defend himself and his property. 

The robbers opened fire, but Turner and other store workers shot back. Jackson was killed in the hail of gunfire.

The attempted heist in Montgomery County is likely not connected to last month's brazen smash-and-grab at a jewelry store in River Oaks, despite some similarities in the cases, police said Tuesday. 

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When thieves hit up de Boulle Diamond and Jewelry, a high-end Houston boutique, they busted in swinging hammers and wearing black hoodies. The four-person crew swept in and out of the store in a mere 40 seconds, with thousands of dollars of merchandise in tow. 

The daytime robbers dashed outside to a waiting car and met up with the fifth man - a getaway driver who sped off in a black Nissan. 

Monday's robbery was fast, too. The thieves were in and out in less than a minute, Conroe police told the Chronicle Tuesday.

"It was very quick," said Lt. Dorcy McGinnis. In both cases, the suspects were dressed in all black and had a getaway car waiting outside after their daytime armed robbery. 

The Conroe crew - who are still on the run - later abandoned their white Dodge Charger getaway car near Tink Calfee Road.

Although there is surveillance footage of the crime, authorities have no plans to release it. 

And, although the cases seem to bear some similarities, McGinnis was tight-lipped about the direction of the investigation - and whether it was related to the River Oaks heist. 

"Obviously we're going to consider other incidences that look similar," she said. "I can't comment on whether we're following that lead at this time." 

But Houston police indicated they don't believe the two are related. 

"We do not believe that the cases are connected or very similar," said Houston police spokesman John Cannon.

That determination is "based on how the incident up there went and their methods of operation," he said, adding that investigators won't likely release information on specific differences between the cases.