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WEBVTT <IT WAS A PRETTY DRAMATIC SCENE UP THERE AT THE BANK. THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT WERE SHAKEN CONSIDERABLY BY IT.> One by one - police handcuffed each teen and took them back to the police station to be questioned. Officers caught the suspects just blocks from there where police say they robbed the Tradesmen Community Credit Union on 2nd Avenue at gun point. <THE INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE IS THAT SOME OF THESE KIDS WERE IN FACT STUDENTS HERE AT DES MOINES PUBLIC SCHOOLS SO THEY DEFINITELY SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN CLASS AND NOT OUT DOING THIS TODAY.> All 5 will be charged as adults. Police say this is part of a scary trend - more and more young teenagers committing violent crimes. <I'M WORRIED THAT DES MOINES IS TRYING TO BE LIKE CHICAGO.> Will Keeps a self proclaimed former gang member ... turned musician and community activist says he's alarmed by what he's seeing. <13, 14, 15, 16 YEAR OLDS KIDS ARE DOING MOST OF THE CRIME RIGHT NOW. I GUESS THAT MUST BE THE AGE WHERE THEY ARE REALLY GETTING LOST.> That's why he and church leaders here at Zion Lutheran Church in Des Moines ... bus in nearly 4-hundred under privileged and refugee kids every Wednesd night. They believe reaching these kids at a young age - is the only way to reverse this dangerous trend. <CHANGE THE WAY THEY THINK BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T - THEY ARE GOING TO BE THE NEXT KIDS OUT HERE ROBBING BANKS. THEY ARE GOING TO THINK IT'S COOL, AND IT'S NOT COOL!> Fredrick Bickham, Mark Robinson and Damarion Farris are all in the Polk County jail tonight facing first degree robbery. The two 17 year suspects will be

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Five teenagers have been charged in connection with a robbery at Tradesmen Community Credit Union. The Des Moines Police Department reports that 18-year-olds Fredrick Dewayne Bickham, Mark Dale Robinson and Damarion Ariontae Farris have been charged with first-degree robbery. Police said two 17-year-old males were also arrested and charged with first-degree robbery. The robbery was reported at the Tradesmen Community Credit Union at 1400 2nd Avenue just after 9 a.m. Wednesday. Police said several suspects entered the credit union, one armed with a handgun. The suspects left the credit union with an undisclosed amount of cash. There were no injuries to anyone at the credit union. An undercover officer in the area was quickly able to track down a vehicle matching that description and relayed information to other officers, who were able to pull the vehicle over without incident a mile and a half away at the intersection of 6th and Corning avenues. Police began questioning the teens minutes later. Sgt. Paul Parizek said some of the robbers were wearing masks and other were not, and that the robbers dropped several items inside the credit union. "Clearly not well-planned, fairly disorganized," is how Parizek described the robbery. “It was a pretty dramatic scene up there at the bank,” Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said. “There were a lot of people that were shaken considerably by it.” One by one, police handcuffed each teen and took them back to the police station to be questioned. ”The information that we have is that some of these kids were, in fact, students here at Des Moines Public Schools, so they definitely should have been in class and not out doing this today, Parizek said. All five will be charged as adults. Police said this is part of a scary trend of more and more young teenagers committing violent crimes. “I'm worried that Des Moines is trying to be like Chicago,” musician and community activist Will Keeps said. Keeps, a self-proclaimed former gang member, said he is alarmed by what he is seeing. “Thirteen, 14, 15, 16-year-old kids are doing most of the crime right now,” Keeps said. “I guess that must be the age where they are really getting lost.” Keeps, along with church leaders at Zion Lutheran Church in Des Moines, transports nearly 400 underprivileged and refugee kids to the church every Wednesday night. They believe reaching kids at a young age is the only way to reverse this dangerous trend. “Change the way they think because if you don't, they are going to be the next kids out here robbing banks,” Keeps said. “They are going to think it's cool, and it's not cool.” Bickham, Robinson and Farris will be transported to the Polk County Jail. Police said the juveniles are being held at Meyer Hall but will be waived to adult court Thursday morning.