By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – St. John the Baptist Sheriff’s deputies arrested a LaPlace man in connection with the armed robbery of a pedestrian, and a spokesperson for the office said he might also be responsible for a string of robberies involving local businesses.

Maj. Mike Tregre, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said Michael Fields, 36, 404 Sugar Pine St., was taken into custody around 2:20 p.m. Monday when deputies patrolling the area of Captain G. Bourgeois Street and Rosemary Court found him hiding under a house. Tregre said the deputy briefly pursued Fields on foot before Fields ducked under the house to avoid capture.

Fields was booked into the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility around 5:50 Monday, and is being held on $65,000 bond.

Tregre said the sheriff’s office obtained the warrant for Fields’ arrest after Fields was pinpointed in a photographic lineup by a 32-year-old Lake Providence, LA man who was robbed at gunpoint Friday.

The robbery victim, whose name was not released, told investigators he was walking in the 300 block of West 2nd Street around 10 p.m. Friday when a slender man, wearing dark clothes and a blue bandana, approached him and pulled a gun on him.

According to police reports, the robber forced the victim to turn in the other direction after the mugging. The robber then fled the area on foot.

Tregre said before the robbery took place, a witness noticed Fields in the area and told investigators.

Investigators believe Fields is the prime suspect in a series of armed robberies involving businesses in the LaPlace area.

About two hours before Fields’ capture Monday, a man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark bandana entered Stein’s Cleaners, 1900 US 51, armed with a handgun. The cashier behind the counter handed the man an undisclosed amount of money from the register, and the robber fled the scene.

Tregre said that Fields is believed to be the perpetrator in this case, and said investigators are looking into the possibility that Fields might be tied to similar robberies of a LaPlace Sherwin-Williams store on October 14, 2007 as well as a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in LaPlace on October 24, 2007.