MONTGOMERY - A former Roanoke police officer who is suspected in an armed robbery was arrested in Mississippi over the weekend, Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin said.
Franklin said Jonathan Heard was arrested around 4 a.m. Saturday in Biloxi.
The Central Store in Central, a town near Wetumpka, was robbed at about 6:30 p.m. Friday night.
Franklin said the suspect went into the store several times during the day Friday, asking for "directions and things like that."
"He came back in about 6:30 p.m. Friday armed and robbed the cashier," Franklin told the Montgomery Advertiser in a Sunday story. "He left the scene driving a (Chevrolet) Avalanche pickup truck."
The suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. A witness took down the vehicle's tag number and Heard was determined to be the owner.
"While the investigation was going on we received information that another store was hit in Shorter. Right now, we feel he is a suspect in that robbery as well," Franklin said.
Franklin said one of his deputies knew Heard and called him on his cell phone.
He said Heard told the deputy he planned to surrender after he spoke with an attorney, but that was apparently a ruse.
"We had units on I-85 looking for him. And he was never spotted," Franklin said.
He said Mississippi officials are investigating the armed robbery of a store in Moss Point, Miss., but it is unknown if Heard is connected.
Franklin said officials from his office will go to talk to Heard in the coming days, and will bring him back to Alabama to face the Elmore County charges if Heard agrees to waive extradition.
If Heard does not agree to come back to face the charges, the governor's office would have to get involved.
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