Violent robberies in York, Meck counties linked

YORK COUNTY, S.C. -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and York County sheriff's investigators have connected a violent string of crimes crossing state lines.

Officers believe the same group of men is to blame for four armed robberies, one ending in murder. Investigators say all four crimes have the same M.O. -- four to six robbers show up in a stolen van, jump out and rob small businesses, shoot the clerks and then ditch the van.

We talked to some of the victims Friday. They want the gunmen caught before someone else gets killed.

"I was about here," said pizza shop owner Joel Doliveck as he showed NewsChannel 36 how he was standing by the counter Monday night. "I turned around and this guy had a gun right in my face."

Queen City Pizza had only been opened for four weeks when a group of robbers came in to the Dilworth strip mall and shot Doliveck.

"One guy was driving then two guys went in next door to the Chinese restaurant and one came in here," Doliveck said. He remembers the path of the bullet saying, "it ended up going through my thigh and coming out through that wall."

But Doliveck felt lucky when he saw surveillance video from a similar crime in Fort Mill two days later.

"I knew it had to be the same guys," he says. The video is from the Anyday Payday Loans store in Fort Mill Wednesday. It shows three masked men barging in, jumping the counter, cleaning out the register and shooting and killing the manager, Joe Fatigato.

Fatigato's co-worker and lifelong friend Neil Schneider said, "just an afterthought, ruthless, they're just ruthless killers now and they're gonna keep killing."

Investigators believe the same group may have robbed the Zaxby's on South Tryon and shot the manager back in August. In all these crimes, investigators say the robbers showed up in stolen vans.

"These vans were stolen in the Steele Creek patrol division," said Deputy Chief David Graham.

Schneider runs the store where he lost his friend and says he won't rest until the killers are behind bars.

"It's not gonna bring Joey back but it will save somebody else," he said, wiping away tears. "I just miss him so much."

Investigators say one of the biggest clues for them will be a stolen van or 4-door sedan especially from a public parking lot, so they urge the public to report anything like that to both CMPD and the York County Sheriff's Office immediately. Detectives also want businesses to make sure their surveillance cameras work.