Man faces charges after armed robbery involving airsoft gun

Man faces charges after armed robbery involving airsoft gun

In the act.

Police say he was armed with an air soft gun.

Now he's facing very serious charges.

News 12's dorothy sherman has the details.

Dsherman@wdef.com/dorothy sherman: "this was not the first time that the suspect has had an encounter with police and city spokesperson says that law enforcement is working with the district attorney to make sure he has access to services that could help him out."

It happened here at the roses discount store on glenwood avenue thursday morning.

Police say they got a call about an armed robbery.

Dalton communications director bruce frazier: "he walked into the store, presented it, pointed it at several individuals including a cashier and said this is a robbery and said that they had to give him all the money and he started pacing back and forth and really scared some people pretty badly."

Dalton communications director bruce frazier says that a person in the store was able to call 9-1-1 and officers were able to get on the scene while the incident was still unfolding.

"when our officers got there they recognized mr. pizarro.

We've had some dealings with him in the past.

They came in and basically pointed weapons at them and said put your hands up and when they saw the weapon in his hand, they told him to drop it and they through it down and he was taken into custody without incident, fortunately."

Police say that the man, identified as 21-year-old steven pizarro was armed with what turned out to be an air soft pistol, like a bb gun, that looked like a real handgun.

And they say that pizarro has had multiple run ins with police.

"we believe that this individual has some sort of mental challenges" "we're working with the district attorney's office to try to make sure that he gets access to some assistance."

"you know just charging him and putting him in the system again might not lead to, you know, a resolution to the problem."

Pizarro faces charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.

Charges that can still be brought against someone even if it didn't involve what you might consider a deadly weapon.

"that's for several reasons, but the main reason is that you're putting that person in fear and you're using that fear as a motivation to rob them."

Dsherman@wdef.com/dorothy sherman: "we are nearing christmas and like many cities, frazier says that they typically see an uptick in property crimes, like shoplifting, but not necessarily robberies.

In dalton, dorothy sherman, news 12 now."

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