FORT WAYNE – A 19-year-old Fort Wayne man has been charged with robbery causing serious bodily injury after a pistol-whipping during a jewelry-store robbery attempt Wednesday.

Fort Wayne police said Theron A. Smith has been taken into custody and that a third arrest is expected.

The Fort Wayne Police Department on Thursday also identified the victim of Wednesday’s pistol-whipping during a jewelry-store robbery.

Rang Q. Do, 54, of Fort Wayne, remains hospitalized Thursday and has been upgraded to fair condition, according to a statement issued by Raquel Foster, a police spokeswoman.

He was injured at Do’s Jewelers, 2809 E. State Blvd.

Men wearing ski masks and carrying handguns demanded money and struck Do on the head and face with a handgun. He was originally listed in serious condition, police said.

The masked men fired at least one shot in the store, but no one was hit, Foster said.

The would-be robbers left empty-handed, and officers were dispatched to the store about 10:40 a.m.

With descriptions of the getaway vehicle and the direction it was headed, officers stopped two vehicles. Police believe the second one, a red-and-gray Chevrolet Blazer, might have been the getaway vehicle.

The Blazer was pulled over Wednesday in the 3200 block of Wayne Trace, about four miles south of the jewelry store. Evidence of the robbery attempt was found in the vehicle, police said, and the driver, Stafford A. Staples Jr., was the only person inside.

Police believe Staples, 18, a city resident, was the getaway driver, Foster said.

He was booked into the Allen County Lockup on a preliminary charge of robbery. His bail was set at $25,000.

Police have not linked this attempted robbery to the holdup reported earlier Wednesday at Laredo Restaurant on Broadway, Foster said.

Two men robbed the Mexican restaurant south of downtown Wednesday morning and eluded a pursuing police officer, according to Fort Wayne police.

Shortly after 9 a.m., officers were sent to Laredo Restaurant, 1854 Broadway near Taylor Street. One of the first officers to arrive saw the robbers fleeing the business in opposite directions, police said.

The officer chased one of the men on foot but ultimately lost sight of him.

Police canvassed the area but did not catch the robbers. They did find clothing the men discarded as they fled, as well as a roll of coins swiped from the register and a handbag taken from a restaurant employee, police said.

Investigators learned that the two men came into the restaurant and demanded cash. One was carrying a handgun; the other had a stun gun. No one was injured, police said.

Anyone with information about either robbery is asked to call the Fort Wayne Police Department at 427-1222 or Crime Stoppers at 436-7867.

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