HOT SPRINGS -- A Hot Springs Village man was arrested late Wednesday on accusations of robbing a Walmart store armed with a BB gun. The man also is accused of threatening to kill a clerk's family and attempting to rob a gas station.
Adrias Robert Turner, 22, who lists a Mesero Way address, was arrested after 10:30 p.m. and later charged with aggravated robbery, first-degree terroristic threatening and second-degree escape.
According to the probable-cause affidavit, around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Garland County sheriff's investigator Andrew Goodman was contacted by sheriff's Cpl. Fred Hawthorn regarding a robbery that had just occurred at the Walmart store at 3604 Garland County Road 7 North, where a man reportedly had used a BB rifle to threaten a store employee and fled with money from the cash register.
As Goodman arrived at the scene, he was told the robber had left the rifle behind near the register before leaving the store. Video footage showed a masked man wearing a hoodie pointing a gun at the cashier. After a few minutes, a second employee walked over and opened the cash register.
The gunman could be seen taking the money and fleeing the store to a white SUV that had pulled up near the front.
The first cashier told Goodman that she had noticed the robber standing near a different register "messing with a rifle under his clothing." After a few moments, he turned to her and pointed the rifle at her. She said he told her to open the cash drawer and give him all the money. She stated he told her he knew her family and her children and would "come and kill them" if she called the police.
She said the second employee walked over and opened the register allowing the robber to take the money and leave.
Around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, deputies were dispatched to the nearby Murphy USA station for a report of an attempted robbery committed by a man who matched the description of the Walmart robber who had just attempted to take money from the gas station.
Deputy Bennie Strickland spotted a man who matched the description of the Walmart and Murphy USA robber who was walking on the driveway between the Murphy USA and the Walmart. Investigators Matthew Ellis and Don Yoak arrived to assist and reported finding a large amount of cash in the man's hoodie pocket and a bag with 4.5 grams of marijuana.
The clerk at the Murphy USA told Strickland the robber had walked up to the window and told her to give him all the money in the cash register. She said that the robber had threatened to kill her and her family if she called the police.
Turner was taken to the sheriff's office for questioning and later charged with aggravated robbery and terroristic threatening. While Deputy Matt Cogburn was escorting him to a waiting patrol unit to be taken to jail, Turner reportedly broke away and began running around to the back of the unit.
Cogburn and Strickland tackled Turner to the ground and took him into custody again, a report said. A charge of second-degree escape was later added.
According to court records, Turner was previously arrested on April 2, 2016, and charged with a felony count of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer after spitting on a Hot Springs Village police officer. On July 17, 2017, Turner pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree battery, a misdemeanor, in the case and was sentenced to a year in jail, suspended, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $170 in court costs.