Car may be linked to four stickups

WALNUT HILLS - Police found a white Toyota Corolla on Thursday afternoon they suspect was involved in a string of armed robberies around the city.

Officers found the car at Lincoln and Melrose streets shortly after 4 p.m. They made one arrest, but it wasn't clear late Thursday what that arrest was for.

The recovery of the 1998 Corolla ended a day of searching for the vehicle that had been involved in at least four stickups - from Over-the-Rhine to University Heights and Bond Hill - between about 1:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday.

In the last one, a woman on her way to a bus stop in Mount Auburn about 7:50 a.m. said a man jumped out of a white Toyota with a white T-shirt over his face, put a gun to her head and demanded her purse. She threw the purse down, kicked off her shoes and ran.

The car had been stolen at gunpoint on Hackberry Street in Evanston about 7 p.m. Wednesday. The driver, Brian Wylie from Southgate, told police two black men in their 20s put a gun to his neck and took the car. He described one as wearing a white-and-red baseball cap, white T-shirt and blue jeans. The other, he said, wore a black T-shirt and blue jeans and had short hair.

Man due in court is shot to death

MOUNT AUBURN - A 20-year-old Winton Terrace man scheduled to appear in court Monday on a charge of cocaine possession died Wednesday night after being shot several times.

Cody Brock III was shot just after 9 p.m., in Inwood Park on Vine Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.Brock was the 47th person killed in a homicide in Cincinnati this year. That's a 17.5 percent increase over the 40 victims at this time in 2003. He was arrested in March for possession of crack cocaine and had been out of jail on his own recognizance.