Three arrested after church members robbed as service began

BAKERSVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Three men face multiple armed robbery charges after authorities said they robbed members of a Mitchell County church of nearly $1,600 as services began on Sunday.

Chief Deputy Donald Street told The Citizen-Times of Asheville that the three men were armed with a pair of pistols as they entered Ridgeview Presbyterian Church.

Street said the men demanded members’ billfolds, purses, cell phones and car keys and also stole money from an offering plate. Street also said the suspects bound two men from the congregation with duct tape and threatened to kill anyone who followed them.

Deputies apprehended the three shortly before noon.

Brothers Andrew Ryan Deyton and Josiah Jacob Deyton of Green Mountain, and Jonathan Neal Koniak of Blountsville, Tenn., are being held in the Rutherford County Jail under $150,000 bond.

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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, http://www.citizen-times.com

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