Douglas police arrested a man Thursday they say is responsible for two armed store robberies that occurred last week.
Officers responded to an armed robbery at the Flash Foods store on N. Peterson Ave. last Saturday, June 25, and another similar incident at Clyde’s Market on the Willacoochee Hwy. the following Sunday, June 26.
Witnesses reported an individual entered both locations wearing similar clothing and approached store clerks in the same manner, placing his right hand in his jacket pocket as if he had a weapon and demanding money. Both clerks complied, and the assailant left both locations with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Investigators from the Douglas Police Department, with assistance from the Georgia Dept. of Paroles, were able to identify and locate the person responsible for both armed robberies, whom they identified as 49-year-old Craig Edwin Bell.
Bell was taken into custody at Community Supervision Services on Ward St. and is currently being held at the Coffee County Jail. He has been charged with two counts of armed robbery.
According to records obtained through the Ga. Dept. of Corrections, Bell was on parole after being released from prison in February after serving just under 13 years of a 20-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter.