PROVIDENCE — Deputy sheriffs in Polk County, Fla., yesterday chased and arrested an alleged robber whom they identified as a suspect in the double slaying of two young women in Providence about two weeks ago.

The alleged robber, Anthony Carter, 22, an ex-convict and registered sex offender from Rhode Island, made damaging statements to Florida investigators about his alleged involvement in the slayings of Heather V. Jesus, 20, and Amanda L. Sousa, 17, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

Carter implicated a second man in the slayings, Judd said.

Deputy sheriffs also recovered a car rented in Rhode Island that was being sought by the Providence police in connection with the killings. And they said that Raymond Clements, 23, whom Judd also called a suspect in the killings, surrendered to the Providence police yesterday.

Providence Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy said it would be incorrect to describe Carter or Clements as suspects in the killings. He said the Providence police have not obtained an arrest warrant naming anyone as a suspect.

He did confirm, however, that the Providence police had issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies asking that they seize the car that ultimately was found in Polk County, a rented 2007 silver Dodge Magnum. The vehicle might be linked to the slayings, Kennedy acknowledged, but he would not say why.

Clements turned himself in at the Providence police station, but that apparently was because he was named in an arrest warrant for being a probation violator on an unrelated conviction, Kennedy said. Clements was being held last night pending his transfer to the Adult Correctional Institutions, according to Kennedy. The deputy chief said he did not have a current address for Clements.

Jesus, of 375 Plainfield St., in the Silver Lake neighborhood, a former dancer at the Sportsman’s Inn downtown, and her cousin, Sousa, of 221 Valley St., in the Valley neighborhood, were found dead on the floor of the living room of Jesus’ tenement apartment June 14.

Their bodies were discovered by firefighters and the police said later that the fire had been set to destroy evidence.

The state medical examiner ruled the deaths to be homicides and said Sousa died from “multiple blunt-impact and sharp-force injuries,” and Jesus from “sharp-force injuries and asphyxia due to neck and chest compression.”

The Polk County sheriff’s office announced that the capture of Carter arose from a call of an attempted armed robbery of a person in the parking lot of a Publix supermarket Thursday night. A car matching the description of the vehicle wanted in Rhode Island was thought to be involved in the attempted robbery, as well as six previous robberies in Florida , the sheriff’s office said.

Deputy sheriffs and Lakeland city police later found the stolen rental car at a house in Lakeland where Carter and Clements had been staying and which is owned by a relative of one or both of the men, the sheriff’s office said.

Carter was seen leaving the house yesterday morning, driving another car.

“We had to chase him down and ram him off the road,” Judd said. “He ran off on foot and we shot him with a Taser.” Carter was injured when the stun gun’s probe lodged in his eye socket, though it did not damage his eye, the sheriff said.

Carter was treated at Lakeland Regional Medical Center and is being held at Polk County Jail on robbery charges and on a detainer for Rhode Island authorities, Judd said.

Carter, whose address was not available, was released from the ACI on May 31 and is wanted by Rhode Island authorities, according to the sheriff’s office, on a charge of probation violation regarding convictions for armed robbery and burglary. He is registered in Rhode Island as a sex offender for having committed incest with a minor.

gsmith@projo.com