A manhunt for a jewelry store robber ended  as a hostage situation when the robber held an elderly couple in their Leesburg home July 10. Both were released safely that night and their hostage taker surrendered to police.

The saga started before 11:30 a.m. when a robber fired shots while running away from The Other Kind of Jewelry Store on East Market Street in Leesburg. The situation quickly escalated into a police chase.

It is unclear where the shots were directed, said Leesburg Police officer, Claggett H. Moxley.

While fleeing, the robber entered a home in the 200 block of Royal Street in Leesburg, police said, where he took the keys to the family's gold Jeep Grand Cherokee and drove off. The people in the home were unharmed, Moxley said. At 12:55 p.m., the man and woman in the home, carrying a baby in diapers, were  escorted out to be debriefed.

During the manhunt that followed, a Fairfax Police helicopter hovered overhead, streets in downtown Leesburg were blocked off and police officers ran through downtown Leesburg with rifles in search of the armed robber.

Catoctin Circle and Edwards Ferry Road to South Street and Harrison Street were blocked off or closed down during the search.

Gladys Barhona said she woke up to the sound of the Fairfax helicopter circling above her home in Leesburg Mobile Home Park on the south side of Market Street, across from the jewelry store. She and another woman were out on their porch when law enforcement officers asked them to go back inside.

Police told people to avoid the southwest Leesburg area and warned residents to stay inside and lock their doors.

Sometime in midafternoon, police said, the robber abandoned the SUV, fled on foot and broke into the elderly couple's home on the 700 block of Valley View Avenue in southwest Leesburg.

Neighbors said the hostages were Robert and Frances Belote, both in their 80s.

Valley View Avenue residents returning from work were turned away from their homes after a door-by-door evacuation about 5 p.m. The Red Cross set up a station at Catoctin Elementary School for the evacuees.

By evening, the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team was negotiating via telephone with the hostage taker, said Chris Jones, master police officer with the Leesburg Police.

"The goal is a peaceful resolution," Jones said.

Jones also said police were using camera robotic teams to help narrow down the hostage taker's location in the Belotes' home. Authorities established a 5-mile no-fly zone above the area, but the Fairfax Police helicopter continued to circle overhead to track the robber. Barricades were set up on either side of Valley View Avenue at the intersections with Davis Avenue and Catoctin Circle SE.

Late in the evening, the female hostage was released, and the standoff continued with her husband still inside their home. Later, the perpetrator surrendered, and the second hostage was found in the home. Police said he had no serious injuries.

The robber is described as a black man, about 45 years old, bald, clean-shaven, wearing a hooded black zip-up sweatshirt and baggy gray trousers.

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police deputies assisted the Leesburg Police in the search.

Shannon Sollinger, Allison Braund and Holly Hobbs contributed to this report. Photos by Lisa Johnson. Contact the writer at hhager@timespapers.com.