Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Youths Help Capture 2 Bank Robbery Suspects : Crime: Teen-agers pursued the pair at high speeds on the freeway, notifying police of their location by cellular phone.

A group of teen-agers who pursued a pair of alleged bank robbers--following them from Santa Clarita to Burbank on the freeway--played a crucial role in catching them, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

The four teen-agers followed the suspects--who allegedly robbed a Santa Clarita bank at gunpoint of about $7,000--at high speeds on the Golden State Freeway, notifying sheriff’s deputies of their whereabouts by cellular telephone.

Deputies praised Devon Conroy, 19, of Canyon Country, for leading the chase, but warned that the teen-agers should have not gotten involved in a high-speed pursuit.

“He’s a good Samaritan and he should be commended for doing what he did,” said Lt. Barbara Persten of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “But at the same time he could have been seriously hurt.”

The robbery started at about 10 a.m. at the Great Western Bank at 16520 Soledad Canyon Road, Persten said, when a man and a teen-age boy entered and forced employees and customers to lay on the floor.

“The adult had the gun and the juvenile jumped over the counter and took money from several tellers,” she said. “He put the money in a bag and they took off.”

Moments later the suspects passed Conroy as he walked through the parking lot of the bank to get gas money for a trip to the beach with three friends. Conroy said he noticed the two because they were wearing “gang-style clothing.”

Conroy didn’t know about the robbery until he entered the bank.

“A lady tapped me on the chest and said, ‘We’ve just been robbed. You have to leave the bank immediately,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I ran to the car and hopped in immediately.”

Conroy began following the suspects in his car, despite protests initially from two of his three teen-age passengers. “I was saying we should just go to the beach,” said Caleb Willis, 16, one of the back-seat passengers.

But Conroy wouldn’t hear of it.

“Devon’s like, ‘I’ve got to do this for mankind,’ ” Willis said. “I think that’s exactly what he said.”

One of Conroy’s friends, a 15-year-old who asked not to be identified, called police using a cellular phone and gave them a description of the suspects and the late 1980s Oldsmobile they were driving.

Conroy, though low on gas, kept following the suspects. He gradually fell behind them and lost sight of their car in Burbank.

But authorities said Conroy followed the car just long enough for them to find it. “By that time our helicopter had located the suspects and we were able to chase them,” said Sgt. Howard Fairchild, a sheriff’s detective.

The suspects drove to the 200 block of Avenue 50 in Los Angeles and fled on foot, said Deputy Mark Bailey.

The 15-year-old was arrested after a short chase, Persten said. She said the other suspect, Hosea Hamilton, 22, broke into a nearby apartment where he briefly forced a family there to lie on the floor at gunpoint.

“We don’t know for sure what (else) he did inside,” Persten added. “He stayed a short period of time and ended up exiting the apartment. He left and was running, and was caught and arrested as he ran down the street.”

The money from the robbery and the gun apparently used during it were recovered from the suspects by police, Bailey said.

Both suspects were booked at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station on suspicion of armed robbery, he added. Hamilton is in custody at the station in lieu of $50,000 bail and the juvenile is being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.