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2 Charged With Kidnapping, Armed Robbery After Standoff

Two people were arrested after a standoff with SWAT that started with an armed robbery Monday night.

Morgan Joyce Varn, 24, and Jonathan Mikael Robinson, 23 (Lancaster County Sheriff's Office)

INDIAN LAND, S.C. -- Two people were arrested after a standoff with SWAT that started with an armed robbery Monday night.

Lancaster County Sheriff's deputies were called to a townhome around 11:20 p.m. along Sandal Brook Road, which is just down the street from the sheriff's office substation.

When they arrived on scene they found a male victim outside who said he had been robbed at gunpoint by two people inside. He told deputies he knew the occupants inside the home and they had invited him over. He also stated his phone had been smashed by the suspects, so he went to a neighbor's house to call 911.

Deputies attempted to make contact with the occupants inside the home. Two adult males exited, but Morgan Joyce Varn, 24, and Jonathan Mikael Robinson, 23, refused to come out, according to the sheriff's office.

“We had three people and a pistol inside that home and for hours did everything we could to get them to come out. When they didn’t, we had to go in and get them," Sheriff Barry Faile said.

SWAT was eventually able to get Varn and the other adult female detained after throwing a phone into the home. Robinson did not answer the phone and continued to refuse to come out, according to deputies. After several minutes, the SWAT team entered the home and took Robinson into custody.

Deputies searched the home and recovered a pistol and ammunition. The pistol had been reported stolen in an Indian Land car break-in in July of last year. A substantial amount of cash was found on Robinson when he was booked into the Lancaster County Detention Center, according to the sheriff's office.

Robinson is charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, and possession of a stolen pistol.

Varn is charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, and malicious injury to personal property. Varn signed a personal recognizance bond on the property damage charge, but bond was denied for Robinson and Varn on all the other charges.

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