By Shelly Whitehead, Post staff reporter

Publication date: December 8, 2001

Covington Police say the robber who was shot and killed by a Covington store owner last month when he tried to rob the business was also responsible for four other Covington hold-ups, as well as one in Fort Wright earlier this fall.

Perry Pinkelton, a 36-year-old Elsmere resident, was shot and killed Nov. 12 by one of the owners of the Twelfth Street Deli-Mart as he tried to rob the store, according to police.

Detectives now say the victims of five other Northern Kentucky armed robberies in October and November identi fied Pinkelton as the person who struck their businesses, as well.

In Covington those robberies occurred on Oct. 20 at the Dolly Madison store on Pike Street, Oct. 27 at the Huntington Bank, Nov. 2 at the Madison Avenue Drive-Thru Mart at 2850 Madison Avenue and on Nov. 6 at Latonia Liquors at 3221 Decoursey Pike. In Fort Wright, Pinkelton was identified as the robber of the Speedway station Oct. 22.

Covington Police Detective Mike McGuffy said the 6-foot-6, 265-pound Pinkelton used the same weapon and very similar methods to rob all the businesses.

In fact, in most of the crimes, McGuffy said, Pinkelton wore the same red hooded sweat shirt and ribbed red toboggan hat, which were ulti mately found in a pouch in his car.

Police say Pinkelton exchanged gunfire with a clerk at the Deli-Mart before he was fatally wounded. The store had been robbed a month before by another gunman.

The Deli-Mart has not reopened since the shooting four weeks ago. When the store's owners attempted to buy another gun at the Land Sea & Air Army Surplus store in Newport three days after the shooting, they got caught in an explosion that left them with minor injuries and gutted the store.

Covington Police say the gun with which Pinkelton was shot at the Deli-Mart was taken for evidence. They do not plan to file charges against the owners because they consider the shooting legally justified.