Police charged four transients in the botched holdup of a Chinese restaurant in Clearwater.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published December 9, 2003
CLEARWATER - It's tough to say when the robbery went most awry.
Perhaps it was when the gunman started shooting before demanding a wallet or cash. Or maybe when the getaway driver bailed early. Or perhaps when the robbers made off with their only haul: two orders of Chinese takeout food.
Whenever it was, one of the most botched robbery attempts in recent memory in Clearwater ended Saturday night with the arrest of four suspects.
The events began that night when Monica Buswell, 21, hatched the idea to rob the China City restaurant, 603 Fort Harrison Ave. S, police said. She recruited her brother, Matthew Buswell, 18, and two other men, Brian Withers, 31, and Robert Rhye, 23, police said.
For coming up with the idea, Monica Buswell was to receive a percentage of the loot, police said. Her brother would wield a loaded handgun with Withers at his side. Rhye would drive the get-away car.
Police said all four are transients. It's unclear how the four obtained a car or a gun that night.
But just before 9 p.m., Zhao Hui Shi, 34, owner of the restaurant, came out the door and headed to his car. He had two delivery orders with him worth about $20 each.
As he opened his car door, he heard something behind him.
"I heard footsteps really fast," he said Monday. "I tried to run away, but I fell."
Police said it was Matthew Buswell and Withers. Shi said he didn't hear the men say a word or demand his wallet. One of them just starting firing, he said.
"They just shot me," said Shi, who later discovered that a bullet had grazed his right bicep. "They didn't say anything."
After firing off three shots, the men took off, police said. They grabbed Shi's food deliveries. Shi stood up, then heard two more shots.
"It came very close to me," he said. "The guy was crazy."
Shi ran after the robbers, then returned to his restaurant and called police.
Meanwhile, Rhye sat in the get-away car, a green Ford Mustang. When he heard the shots, he split, leaving his accomplices behind, police said. Without a car, Buswell and Withers took off running.
When police received the call of a robbery with shots fired, they converged on the area. An officer met with Shi and called an ambulance for him.
Other officers found Buswell and Withers in the area. The two men told police they were carjacked. They gave a description of the green Mustang Rhye was driving.
Moments later, police pulled that car over at Hillcrest Avenue and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and took Rhye into custody.
But officers with Buswell and Withers had noticed their stories weren't adding up. Both men were out of breath. And when officers found takeout food spilled nearby, they figured the men were suspects in a robbery, not victims of a carjacking.
Matthew Buswell and Rhye eventually admitted to their role in the doomed caper, police said, though Withers did not. Officers then tracked down Monica Buswell and charged her with conspiracy to commit robbery. She was being held at the Pinellas County Jail Monday in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Rhye, who police said was the jumpy driver, was charged with armed robbery and driving with a suspended license. He was being held at the jail Monday in lieu of $50,250 bail.
Withers was arrested on an armed robbery charge and was at the jail on $50,000 bail. Matthew Buswell was arrested on charges of attempted murder and armed robbery. His bail was set at $250,000.
Shi was taken to Morton Plant Hospital, treated for his injuries and released later that night. He said the wound was minor.
