Article content continued

An Oneida police officer ordered a Free Press reporter to leave the community, threatening arrest if the reporter didn’t immediately comply.

“The chief and the band doesn’t want media covering this,” Oneida police Const. Eddie King said before escorting a reporter off the territory with his cruiser lights activated.

Oneida Chief Jessica Hill didn’t respond to a request for comment.

An OPP spokesperson referred all inquiries about the probe to London police.

A London police spokesperson confirmed the OPP were assisting in the robbery investigation.

Police said they had four men in custody.

Court documents obtained by The Free Press indicate the four men were charged Wednesday with robbery and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

Police allege the four men were armed with a sledgehammer while stealing from Duane Bock, the documents say.

Bock and his wife, Loretta Gordon-Bock, are the owners of longtime London jewelry store. Gordon-Bock’s parents started the business out of their country home in 1980.

Charged are Mason Ireland, 25, of no fixed address; Nevin McCrea, 29, of no fixed address; Matthew Simpson, 34, of London, and Troy Wolfe, 30, of London.

The four accused, wearing white jumpsuits, appeared in a London courtroom Wednesday afternoon and were remanded in custody. They were ordered not to communicate with each other and several other individuals.

At least one of the men, Troy Wolfe, has a long criminal past. Last May, he was sentenced to six years’ time served for a 2012 armed robbery of a Central Avenue pharmacy where the owner was pistol-whipped. The court heard that Wolfe has been before the court 18 times and has nine convictions for violent offences other than the robbery-related convictions.