MARYSVILLE — After an armed robbery at the Jackpot Shell store Tuesday, a detective noticed a man near the scene, wearing a baggy white tank top, black shorts and white Air Jordans.
The detective said police were looking for a man who just committed a robbery. Due to the “difference in clothing,” the man was released. He gave the detective a fist bump, exposing the tattoos on his hands to the officer’s body camera, telling the detective that he “hoped they find the guy.”
Police arrested the Marysville man, 30, the next day, after a robbery spree where the suspect was initially identified through the tattoos on his hands, wrote Marysville police detective Joe Belleme.
Around 4 a.m. May 15, a man entered the Jackson Food Mart at 1209 Fourth St. NE and pointed a pistol at an employee’s head, demanding cash. Security footage showed a gun that appeared to be “unique,” with a polished metal slide and an extended threaded barrel, according to a police report. The robber also had tattoos on the top of his hands. He got away with about $120 in cash, the report said.
In surveillance footage from around 3:30 a.m. May 21, two men in a “full size” red pickup truck broke into the Boulevard Grocery Store at 5304 61st St. NE in Marysville, according to a police report. The men reportedly dragged an ATM through the smashed-out front doors, police said.
Around two hours later, a silver Dodge Journey was caught on security footage driving past the business. A man wearing a gray hat, black hoodie, True Religion pants and black Nike shoes approached the broken doors where one of the owners was cleaning up, police said.
The man pointed a silver pistol at the owner, grabbed a hold of him and demanded the cash from the tills, the footage reportedly showed. The tills were empty, and the man ordered the owner to take him to the back of the office, where he believed the cash was stored, according to police. The assailant was led to the office, where they met with the other owner.
The man was “manipulating” the slide multiple times over the course of the robbery, police wrote. The video showed tattoos on the back of the man’s hands.
He threatened the co-owners, demanding they hand over their wallets, police said. The man emptied a garbage can in the office, put the cash inside and left. Camera footage showed the Dodge Journey driving past the grocery store soon afterward.
On Tuesday, a man wearing a gray hat, black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and black Nikes reportedly walked into the Jackpot Shell. The man pointed what appeared to be a pistol at the employee behind the counter, demanding cash, according to the report. Again, tattoos on the man’s hands were captured on surveillance footage.
While reviewing more footage from nearby businesses, police observed the robber taking off his hoodie, revealing a baggy white tank top and cash protruding from his pocket.
A witness reported he had video of the man who committed the robbery, police said. The video showed a man wearing clothes similar to a person who had just fist-bumped the detective — and police used the images of the tattoos to connect the dots.
Detectives sent out body camera and security footage to Tulalip police. The man was identified as someone with a U.S. Marshal’s felony warrant for violating his probation on a previous robbery conviction. In 2019, he was sentenced to 5¼ years in federal prison for robbing the Priest Point grocery store at gunpoint on the Tulalip Reservation.
Tulalip police told detectives he had been staying with his sister on the reservation.
At his sister’s house, Tulalip police saw a silver Dodge Journey in the driveway, according to the report. At the house, Marysville police talked with the suspect’s family.
They reported to police the man got out of prison March 3 and quit detox on Mother’s Day, the day before the first robbery, the detective wrote.
On Wednesday, video from outside Liberty Elementary School in Marysville showed the man walking outside in a baggy tank top. Detectives notified U.S. Marshals, who detained the suspect outside an apartment complex. He was transferred to the Marysville police station, where he reportedly spoke with detectives without a lawyer.
The man told police he had been using methamphetamine and fentanyl. He also said he did the robbery at the Jackpot Shell, but only because he was “stuck in a jam,” according to the police report.
He said he owed people money from before he was in prison. He reportedly went on to say he also committed the other two robberies, using a BB gun the entire time.
The man said he never had any intention of leaving detox, but he had to because of the money he owed to a drug dealer. He said he didn’t wear a mask during the Jackpot Shell Station robbery because he didn’t care, detectives wrote.
“(Expletive) it,” he told police.
After the interview, police arrested the man for investigation of three counts of first-degree robbery and four counts of second-degree assault.
At his bail hearing, Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard found probable cause on all counts Thursday. His bail was set at $200,000.
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EDHJonTall.
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