Police arrest three after surrounding apartment complex Tuesday morning

Police arrested two Lawrence men and one Topeka man on Tuesday morning at an apartment at 1732 W. 24th St., on suspicion of criminal possession of a firearm, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.

Marcus Jerome Lee Bell, 27, of Lawrence; Christopher Allen Freeman, 22, of Lawrence; and Jerome Leon Miller, 20 of Topeka, were booked into Douglas County Jail on Tuesday morning, where they remain with bonds not yet set.

Bell is the only man of the three who is suspected of criminal firearm possession by a felon.

Police responded to a disturbance call at Campus View apartments at 4:26 a.m. after a caller told officers a person wanted for robbery was at the apartment armed with a handgun and causing a disturbance, said Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman.

Upon arrival, police learned several people were inside the apartment in question, McKinley said.

Police stayed at the apartment complex for nearly eight hours as they awaited a search warrant to look for evidence. Several police units were staged around the building, including the department’s armored rescue vehicle.

After interviews at the department’s Investigations and Training Center, McKinley said, police arrested the three men on suspicion of aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and criminal use of a firearm.

Bell was previously convicted of robbery in Douglas County in 2008 in connection with a 2006 offense and was discharged from the custody of the Department of Corrections in June 2009.

Earlier this year, Bell was arrested in connection with the alleged beating and robbery of a female victim, also in the 1700 block of West 24th Street. A female victim was severely beaten by three people who also stole her phone.

Miller is also scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 9 after pleading guilty in November to interference with a law enforcement officer and pleading no contest to both theft and felony drug charges that allegedly took place in 2012 and 2013.

Elliot Hughes contributed to this report.