Fire department members arrested after robbery

Indian Head volunteers said to invade home

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Four of five people who were recently charged with bursting into a home and threatening the occupants with a pellet gun during a drug-related robbery are members of the Indian Head fire department, according to the organization's president.

The department members — John Richard Mead, Chad Thomas Headley, Mark Andrew Hedges and Russell Wayne Raines — were put on suspension shortly after the incident and aren't allowed on station property or inside any of its equipment, said Rick Bowie, president of the Indian Head Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue Squad.

Bowie said he is concerned the department will suffer from "guilt by association" after the robbery even though the crime has nothing to do with the fire company.

"Every member has their individual lives," he said, adding that this is "not the first or the last time" volunteer firefighters will run afoul of the law.

The reported crime happened Feb. 16 at an apartment on Hunt Place in Waldorf, according to court documents. At about 9:30 p.m., police arrived at the home, where they met a victim who told them the robbers had fled in a car.

At Jackson Court, near the crime scene, sheriff's officer Michael Smith stopped a car, which had four occupants, according to police. While searching the car, Smith found a black pellet pistol, several masks, cell phones and gloves, court papers state. The victim identified the car's occupants, Mead, Headley, Hedges and Steven Howard Luskey, as the people who allegedly robbed him, court documents show. Investigators later learned that the fifth robber was Raines, the papers state.

Investigators learned that Luskey, 22, and the four others, all in their teens, planned the robbery and wore dark clothes, masks and gloves to the Hunt Place apartment, according to court documents.

Luskey, who Bowie said isn't a member of the fire department, carried the BB gun and another alleged assailant carried a collapsible baton, while Headley acted as a lookout, the papers report.

Luskey, of Indian Head, knocked on the apartment door, and when one of the victims answered, he kicked through the entrance and walked inside, police reported. Pointing the BB gun at the victims, Luskey ordered them to the ground, court documents allege. Luskey, Headley and Raines ripped a game system from the television and stuffed it in a backpack, then scoured the rest of the apartment and stole numerous things, including a cell phone, according to police.

Mead, 18, of Indian Head drove the robbers from the scene, court documents stated.

Police reported that the burglary was drug-related.

Luskey, Mead, Headley, Hedges and Raines are charged with armed robbery, assault, first-degree burglary and theft of less than $1,000. Headley, 17, and Raines, 16, both of Indian Head, and Hedges, 17, of Bryans Road were charged as adults. They were indicted last Friday into Charles County Circuit Court.

"Everybody is innocent until proven guilty," said Indian Head Fire Chief Jeff Williams. "I don't know what the boys did or didn't do."

The fire department memberships of the four teens charged in the burglary will be re-evaluated when their court cases are resolved, according to Bowie. The organization had a meeting the night after the arrests and decided to suspend Mead, Headley, Hedges and Raines for the time being, meaning that they can't go on calls with the fire department, come onto the property or attend drills, said Williams.

Bowie said that although "everyone has their peculiarities," the four teens never caused any major problems at the fire department, which he added doesn't tolerate drug abuse.

"It's very hard to keep and retain good members," said the president.

Bowie said the absence of the four department members hasn't affected the company's ability to respond to emergencies.

The department conducts criminal background checks before permitting anyone to join. If a volunteer is convicted of a crime, the department makes decisions about membership on a case-by-case basis, Williams said.

Bowie said members are not tested for drugs.

brodgers@somdnews.com