YORK COUNTY, Pa. — A current or former Bucknell University student is facing charges after police say evidence linked him to an armed robbery in York County.
The robbery occurred at the Speedway located at 486 Fishing Creek Road in Fairview Township around 9:20 p.m. on Feb. 23. The victim told police he was standing outside when a man approached him with a "smaller rifle" and instructed him to go back inside and get the cash from the register. According to a criminal complaint, the suspect also tried to steal from a safe inside the store that the employee did not have access to.
Police say the suspect got $144 from the register before running into a wooded area across from the gas station. A driver on the road also allegedly witnessed his flight.
Police found Jared Flores, 21, of Silver Spring, Maryland, who matched the victim's and witness's description of the suspect, behind a nearby steakhouse a short time later after being flagged down by an employee reporting a suspicious man.
Police say Flores could not give officers a reason as to why he was in the area. He claimed he was walking home from Bucknell University to Maryland to attend a concert. He also allegedly stated he had just set out a few hours ago, but police say it would take an average person around 28 hours on foot to cover the same distance that Flores claimed to have traveled in a few hours.
Officers allegedly also confirmed with university officials that Flores' student ID card had been used to enter a building on Bucknell's campus approximately four hours before the armed robbery occurred.
On Feb. 28, police located the clothing believed to be worn during the robbery in the parking lot of a business near the Speedway and steakhouse, according to an affidavit of probable cause. After obtaining a search warrant, detectives searched Flores' phone and allegedly found photos of him wearing clothes similar in color, style and appearance to the suspect's.
The phone's data also revealed Flores' search history, which allegedly showed that he had searched businesses in the area of the Speedway, the skating rink where the clothes were found and the location of the Newberry Township Police Station.
According to location data retrieved from the phone, Flores visited the steakhouse and skating rink at times that were consistent with the robbery. A witness from Bucknell also allegedly told police that he had dropped Flores off at the skating rink the night of the robbery.
It is unclear if Flores is still a student at the university.
He is charged with robbery-threat immediate serious injury, robbery-inflict threat immediate bodily injury, simple assault, theft by unlawful taking-movable property and recklessly endangering another person.
