Police: Dollar-sign tattoo led to marijuana robbery arrest

EVERETT – A Kent man suspected of robbing an Everett weed shop at gunpoint was identified last week when a police officer recognized the man’s tattoo of a dollar sign.

Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard set the suspect’s bail at $ 100,000. On Tuesday afternoon, the 22-year-old man was in custody at Snohomish County Jail.

At around 1:40 p.m. on August 9, the suspect and two other men allegedly entered the Joint Recreational & Medical Marijuana Dispensary at 9506 19th Avenue SE and waved guns, according to a police report from Everett. One man reportedly had a pistol, the other was armed with a rifle.

The three men – their faces covered by masks – told everyone in the store to go to the floor, the report said.

Staff and customers reported to police that the men said something like, “You will die if you don’t do what we say.”

The armed men watched people on the ground and took their cell phones so no one could call 911 while the unarmed man filled bags with pharmacy products, the report said. One of the gunmen forced an employee into the back office and asked him to open a safe. The trio took away $ 15,000 in cash before escaping the store.

The police checked security recordings. An officer who previously worked in King County identified the unarmed man as a suspect he had encountered in a previous robbery investigation. The man had a dollar sign tattooed on the back of his right hand near his thumb. The officer received a search warrant on the suspect’s phone files and the information he found reportedly provided sufficient evidence to support the suspect’s arrest.

The suspect was arrested Thursday in a parking lot at the 21000 shopping center on 84th Avenue S in Kent.

Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; [email protected]; Twitter: @reporterellen