slideshow

The last of three West Virginia residents wanted in connection to the fatal shooting of a local store owner during what authorities are calling an armed robbery was arrested Saturday in far western Virginia.

Joshua Robert Berry, 28, of Bluefield, W.Va., was arrested shortly after 1;30 a.m. Saturday by the Virginia State Police in Bland County, Va., near the border with West Virginia. His arrest ended a manhunt which involved Mount Airy police, North Carolina and Virginia authorities, as well as the U.S. Marshals’ office and several local law enforcement agencies in Virginia.

Berry is one of three people charged in the shooting death of 58-year-old Donald Claude Arnder, who was gunned down in his store, Eddie’s Zip Food, just minutes before its scheduled midnight closing time on May 25. Berry is charged with murder, attempted armed robbery, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in the slaying of Arnder.

Emanuel William Foster, 23, also of Bluefield, is charged with the same crimes — he has been under armed guard in a Roanoke, Va., hospital recovering from gunshot injuries sustained in the alleged robbery — and Berry’s wife, Sarah Lynn Looney Barry, is in custody on charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and accessory after the fact to murder. She is in custody in the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Tazewell, Va.

Virginia State Police Sgt. Michael Conroy said the three have been on what he called a multi-state crime spree “over the past two or three months.”

In addition to the Mount Airy charges, Joshua Berry had outstanding warrants from the Wytheville, Va., Police Department charging him with larceny, kidnapping, weapon possession, robbery, possession of burglary tools, and pick-pocketing, according to a written statement issued by the Virginia State Police.

The Washington County, Va., Sheriff’s Office has charged him with “several counts of robbery, firearm possession, kidnapping and weapon offenses,” the Virginia State Police said, and a circuit court violation of probation order has been issued in Brevard County, Fla., against Joshua Barry, on charges related to a previous robbery with a firearm conviction.

The Virginia State Police, West Virginia State Police, Bland Count Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals all assisted with the arrest, which was made without incident, according to the Virginia State Police.