RALEIGH — Police got a court order sending a 15-year-old boy to a locked detention facility after they charged him with being a 17-year-old’s accomplice in a string of robberies that began Friday and ended with shots being fired into the ceiling of a check-cashing business in a hold-up attempt Tuesday.

The 15-year-old was found with Jaquan Contrell Collins, 17, of Cary by police who were searching the area around Ace Cash Express on New Bern Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, police spokesman Jim Sughrue said Thursday.

Collins and the youth are accused of being the pair who fired two shots into the ceiling of Ace to frighten employees, but the workers were behind secure glass and went into the back of the business, Sughrue said.

Collins is accused of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy in that incident and with robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy in three earlier hold-ups.

The youth was involved in all three of those, Sughrue said.

Friday, a pair of people held up a Sonic restaurant on Atlantic Avenue and robbed a woman at a Cash Points ATM.

Monday, the DTLR clothing store on Raleigh Boulevard was robbed.

A gun was shown all three times, but no shots were fired until Tuesday, Sughrue said.

Collins was held on $750,000 bail.

Gallagher 919-829-4572