A man accused of holding up three Clayton County businesses — including two in the span of 15 minutes — was arrested Sunday evening following a foot chase outside a Riverdale Walmart, authorities said.
Aujanae Wiles, 35, was captured by an off-duty Riverdale police lieutenant working a part-time job at the store along Ga. 85, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. According to the agency, management alerted the detective to a man inside the store with a cart full of merchandise.
After telling Wiles he needed to make his way toward the cashier and pay for the items in his cart, authorities said the man ran from the store.
“During the foot chase the male subject reached in his waistband and threw a revolver behind a semitruck,” the sheriff’s office said, adding Wiles was eventually tracked down and arrested.
During a search of his belongings, authorities discovered a backpack containing a set of U-Haul keys and a pair of shoes linking him to the armed robbery of a Riverdale clothing store three days earlier.
Investigators said Wiles held up the DTLR Clothing Store on Ga. 85 in Riverdale around 4 p.m. Thursday. About 15 minutes later, a man fitting the same description robbed a Family Dollar store on Ga. 138 in Jonesboro, the sheriff’s office said previously.
In addition to Thursday’s robberies, Wiles was also linked to the Dec. 12 robbery of the Panhandle Package Store on Flicker Road in Jonesboro, authorities said. The incidents were captured on the stores’ security systems, prompting Clayton Sheriff Victor Hill to announce a $5,000 reward last week for information leading to his capture.
Wiles admitted to the robberies of all three businesses, and reportedly told detectives he needed the money to support his drug habit, Hill said in his release. He is charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, records show. He remained held at the Clayton County Jail Tuesday afternoon without bond.
