Robbery Suspect Captured Hours After Holding Up a Southeast Lincoln Gas Station

Earl Hayes III (Courtesy of Lincoln Police)

LINCOLN–(KFOR Oct. 22)–An armed robbery early Thursday at a southeast Lincoln convenience store was quickly solved, after police were called back to the same area hours later and found the suspect.

Officers were called around 12:30am to Prairie Lake Shell station near 84th and Highway 2, where a man reportedly walked in asking for cigarettes, before pulling out a handgun and demanding money from the clerk. The suspect took off with cash from the register and a pack of cigarettes. An initial search of the area found no suspect, but officers continued to review security video.

Officer Erin Spilker says just after 3am, police got a call from the manager of that gas station about seeing a man crossing Highway 2 in the same area, believing it to be the man responsible for the robbery. Officers showed up and found 20-year-old Earl Hayes III huddled near a restaurant. Spilker says Hayes was identified as the same man seen on security video during the robbery.

Hayes was taken into custody and during a search of his person, large amounts of cash were stuffed in his pant legs. Hayes was arrested for robbery and use of a weapon to commit a felony.