Gilbert woman nearly run over in robbery

GILBERT, AZ - A 68-year-old woman was nearly run over after a teen attempted to steal her purse in a Gilbert grocery store parking lot Wednesday.

According to court documents filed Thursday by Gilbert police , Johnathan Winston Churchill, 24, and a 17-year-old female accomplice whose name has not been released were parked in a silver Nissan Maxima in the Fry's parking lot when they saw the woman walking toward her car with a cart of groceries.

She stopped behind her own car a few parking spaces down and went to open the door.

Churchill then allegedly told the 17-year-old to grab the woman’s purse out of her cart, according to the report.

She grabbed the bag and then got back into the passenger seat next to Churchill after he pulled the car up behind them.

But the woman saw the 17-year-old grab the purse and reached in the open passenger-side window of the car to try take the purse back.

As she did, Churchill hit the gas and started to drive away, knocking the woman to the ground and striking her with the rear tire.

She suffered a contusion to her head and some scrapes but no major injuries, according to the report.

Churchill then drove the car to a 7-11 gas station on Gilbert Road and attempted to buy gas with the woman’s credit card.

When they didn’t know the zip code of the card, they realized they couldn’t make the purchase and got back into the car and drove away, leaving the woman’s purse in a trash can, the report said.

As Churchill drove away, he was spotted by Gilbert police on Guadalupe Road.

When the officers pulled their patrol car behind him with their lights and sirens on, he stopped in the middle of the road, did an abrupt U-turn and sped away in the opposite direction.

Churchill later told police he thought he was going over 120 mph as he fled.

 “We’re already going to prison,” Churchill told the 17-year-old girl as they drove, according to the report. 

After speeding through a red light on Guadalupe and Cooper roads, Churchill was stopped when he ran over stop sticks that had been put out by another Gilbert police officer, causing two of his tires to go flat.

When he was interviewed by police later, Churchill admitted to taking the woman’s purse and told police that he was a heroine user.

Officers found multiple syringes in the car, the report said.

He told police they took the purse for gas and food and that the two had been living in the car for the last four days.