johnny edison
Fayetteville police have three men in custody for the armed robbery of the T.J. Maxx store at the Fayette Pavilion May 31.

Two of the men are believed to be brothers, police said: Johnny Edison, 30, of Hampton and Kevin Edison, 28, of Taylorsville, Miss. The third suspect also hails from Taylorsville: Leonard Barnes, 29, police said.

Johnny Edison is currently being held at the Fayette County Jail, while Kevin Edison and Barnes are jailed at the Covington County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi awaiting extradition, said Capt. Steve Crawshaw of the Fayetteville Police Department.

Johnny Edison is charged with armed robbery (party to a crime), aggravated assault (party to a crime) and kidnapping (party to a crime. Kevin Edison and Barnes are both charged with armed robbery.

More charges may be filed in the future and there’s the possibility of further arrests because police believe one more person may have been involved, but there is no information on that person yet, police said.

The incident occurred as the store was closing May 31 when the store manager told police she was pushed into her office at gunpoint by two black men while she was collecting money from cash registers. She was forced to open the safe and the suspects took the money from both the safe and the cash registers, police said.
The manager was taped to a chair and the two men then ran out of the office.

The arrests were made with the assistance of the United States Marshals Fugitive Squad, the Atlanta Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Covington County Sheriff’s Office.