BY CATHERINE TSAI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON -- On a rare night when Tammy Wagner's family was all in one place, her nightmare began.
Sunday, she went to her sister's apartment in Covington to pick up her brother's and sister's children for vacation Bible school. Minutes later, a man waving two guns pushed his way in, tied up five adults and left the sixth -- her sister's husband, Paul Smith -- untied with a gun to his head, Mrs. Wagner said.
The siblings' six children, ages 5 to 13, were not tied, but the man put a gun to the head of Mrs. Wagner's 13-year-old son.
"He threatened to kill someone if anyone moved or did something wrong," Mrs. Wagner said. "He had a gun pointed at someone at all times."
Even after a man was arrested Sunday in connection with that robbery and three other similar weekend break-ins, Mrs. Wagner still hears her 13-year-old cry in the night.
"It's just begun when it's over," she said.
The robbery of Mrs. Wagner's extended family was the last of four similar crimes that happened before police arrested a suspect, Samuel Carter, 18, in Cincinnati on Sunday.
The events described by Mrs. Wagner mimic a break-in early Sunday in which the suspect ordered a victim to tie everyone else while he rounded up valuables.
Mrs. Wagner said that minutes after she, her two children and husband arrived at her sister's third-floor apartment at 1551 Maryland, her sister-in-law, Melissa Reynolds, answered a knock at the door.
All the spouses and children of Mrs. Wagner's brother and sister were in the apartment.
The man pushed Mrs. Reynolds aside, told everyone to get on the floor and told Mr. Smith at gunpoint to tie the adults with surgical tape.
The suspect also turned his gun on Mrs. Wagner's son, telling him to grab a telephone cord so he could tie his parents, Mrs. Wagner said.
The suspect told his victims he wanted to buy "powder," which the family said they didn't realize meant cocaine.
Mrs. Reynolds said the suspect was calm and collected at first but got angry when no one gave him more than $15. He took Mr. Wagner's wallet and said he'd hit the Wagners' house next.
Before it ended, the suspect took Mr. Smith to a back room with both guns pressed to Mr. Smith's back and head, asking for more money.
Mr. Smith said the suspect also took him to the second floor to ask for money, but no one there heard Mr. Smith's intentionally light knock.
The suspect wanted Mr. Smith to drive Mr. Wagner's car away with him, but Mr. Smith said he pointed to a man up the road, saying he was a retired cop from whom the suspect needed to escape.
After the suspect left, Mr. Smith said, his family called police. The adults had already started removed the surgical tape.
"I was shaken up pretty bad," Mr. Smith said. "The tears wanted to come, but they wouldn't. I was so angry. There's still a lot of hostility, and it'll always remain there."
The family says the robbery left behind fear, children's nightmares and the Smiths' unwillingness to return to Covington.
"It's not fair to have to live life terrified," Mrs. Wagner said.
