Melvin Rankin (Missouri State Highway Patrol).
A Missouri man on lifetime GPS monitoring shot at four kids who knocked at his door while playing “ding-dong ditch” and chased them down in a vehicle before ordering them out of their car at gunpoint and stealing their car keys, police said.
Melvin Rankin, 40, faces charges of unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, and robbery. A probable cause statement spells out the allegations from Sunday in Springfield, Missouri.
One alleged victim told police the group had gone to IHOP to eat and then decided to “ding-dong ditch” the area of Edgewood Street. At one home, they rang the doorbell, and saw a man, later identified as Rankin, look out a window, the document said.
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When they rang the doorbell again, the garage opened, and they heard a gunshot from inside the garage, according to the document. They ran to their vehicle and drove off but were followed by Rankin in a white Jeep Grand Cherokee, the probable cause statement said.
At a dead-end road, Rankin pulled up next to the victims, pointed a sawed-off shotgun with a pistol grip at them, and then demanded they get out of their car and lie on the ground, the document said. The victims did as they were told.
At one point, Rankin allegedly placed the gun to the back of the head of one victim on the ground and asked, “Who sent you?” and “Where’s the gun?”
The victims told the suspect they were just kids and apologized for playing “ding-dong ditch,” the document said.
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Rankin then demanded their car keys, which he took and drove off in his Jeep, the statement said.
Police quickly located Rankin, pulled him over in a traffic stop as he drove his Jeep and arrested him, the document said.
At Rankin’s home, police found a single-shot, 20-gauge shotgun in the garage, wrapped in a towel in a drawer, according to the document. The shotgun’s stock was wooden and appeared homemade, crafted to where someone would hold it with their hand when firing, the statement said.
Rankin is a registered sex offender on lifetime GPS monitoring for a first-degree statutory rape conviction, the document said. He has a history of failing to report as a sex offender and failing to appear for court dates, according to the document. He also has convictions for breaking and entering, possession of a controlled substance, and driving while revoked, the statement said. Police said he is an admitted Crips gang member and has tattoos on his forearms displaying his gang affiliation, according to the document.
He is being held at the Greene County Jail with a bond review hearing set for Tuesday, online court records show.
