Christopher Mitchell and three friends thought they'd catch up and talk Bible passages outside a coffee shop in the 60-degree downtown Roanoke air Tuesday night.

A man wearing a black hat had a different idea. He sat with them, pointed a gun and demanded their wallets in what became downtown's third armed attack in as many weeks.

"It was so odd; I kept expecting a punch line," said Mitchell, 24.

A man was charged in the holdup that happened on the patio of Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea late Tuesday. Another man was charged Wednesday in an unrelated armed robbery of three women inside a Campbell Avenue parking garage Sunday. And one man was arrested in a Feb. 21 gun and knife brawl on Campbell Avenue while another is being sought.

Police said the spate of downtown crime is neither unusual nor alarming. Capt. Monti Lee underscored two points about the incidents: They are unrelated, and arrests have been made.

Police presence downtown will stay the same, he said. Six officers are assigned to specifically patrol the downtown, and on any given day, there could be two to four officers downtown. A detailed number of downtown crime statistics was unavailable Tuesday.

"It's not like a steady uprising in crime," Lee said.

Roanoke police officers arrested Carl Jacques Jeune, 25, of Roanoke minutes after the robbery was reported at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, and charged him with three counts of armed robbery, one count of attempted armed robbery and four counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, police said in a news release.

On Wednesday, police said they arrested a man suspected of robbing two women at gunpoint and taking their wallets in a parking garage in the first block of Campbell Avenue early Sunday morning.

Daniel Rhys Howard, 19, of Roanoke was charged with one count of robbery and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, the news release said.

Meanwhile, police have arrested a man suspected of shooting another man during a melee also in the first block of Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke early Feb. 21. Police have not made an arrest in connection with the stabbing of another man during the same fight.

For one of the victims in Tuesday's Bible-study robbery, the episode was simply a sign of a time when people are struggling.

"I don't think any of us felt he was going to actually hurt us," he said, asking not to be identified. "I think he was just doing something desperate."

The victims were sitting around a table where they had two copies of the New English version of the Bible and were drinking coffee and tea. One of them ate key lime cheesecake. Then, a man wearing light blue jeans, a dark T-shirt and a hat approached them, and Mitchell said he thought the man wanted to ask about the Bible.

"He seemed normal enough -- almost friendly," Mitchell said.

The man told them to put their wallets on the table when Mitchell caught a glimpse of the weapon, which he thought looked like one of his brothers' plastic BB guns. So, he said, "Guys, it's just an Airsoft gun."

The man took three of their wallets, and sped away in an early 1990s white Honda Accord onto Williamson Road, Mitchell said. Mitchell called 911, and when officers arrived, he gave them the car's license plate number.

At the home where the car was registered, officers found Jeune, who matched the description of the suspect, police said. By 10:30 p.m., he was being held at the Roanoke City Jail without bond, according to documents filed at the Roanoke Magistrate's Office.

Mitchell, a college student who sings tenor in the Rainbow Forest Baptist Church choir, said his friends had planned to read from the Bible's book of Romans on Tuesday night. Some of them are regulars at the coffee shop, and the incident was rare -- "a story for the grandkids, if I ever have any," Mitchell said.

Baristas gave the group free cups of coffee later that night, and Mitchell said they plan to continue meeting there for Bible study.

"This is a rare thing in Roanoke," Mitchell said. "This guy was caught last night. If somebody else comes along we would be glad to share the Gospel with them."

Staff writer Amanda Codispoti contributed to this report.