ST. GEORGE — Police arrested a man Wednesday night after he allegedly told employees at a pizza restaurant he had a gun and demanded money. Nearby shops were locked down as more than a dozen police units began a search that ended in an arrest just two hours later.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, emergency dispatch received a report about a robbery in progress at a pizza restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in St. George.
Officers responded and spoke to several witnesses who said a man entered the business with his hand tucked in his waistband and told the employee he had a gun and demanded money from the register, according to a statement released Wednesday by the St. George Police Department.
The suspect “immediately reached into his pocket and held his hand in such a manner” to lead the employee to believe he was armed with a gun, the officer noted in charging documents filed with the court.
Immediately after taking approximately $70 from the register, the suspect fled from the scene. He was described as a 6-foot-tall white man with a medium build and curly black hair wearing a royal blue shirt, dark pants and a faded-green bucket-type hat.
The suspect could be seen in the store’s surveillance footage that was collected by police and still photos were captured and disseminated to officers out circulating the area.
As the search for the suspect continued, a patrol officer noticed a man heading north on North Dixie Downs Road who matched the description of the suspect.
The officer pulled over and spoke to the man, identified as 26-year-old Daxton Dalton Farr, of St. George. After comparing the photo from the suspect’s identification card with the still shots captured during the incident, the officer determined both images matched, the report states. His clothes also matched the description.
He was then transported to the Police Department for an interview.
The suspect reportedly admitted to robbing the restaurant, adding that he only told the employee he had a firearm in his pocket but did not have a gun at the time.
The suspect was taken into custody and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility. And a statewide background check revealed two active warrants issued for the suspect.
Farr was booked into jail on first-degree aggravated robbery, along with possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia, charges added when officers found tin foil and suspected fentanyl during a search of his person before transport, authorities say.
St. George Police Officer Tiffany Mitchell told St. George News that it took them about two hours to arrest the suspect from the time they received the report of the incident.
Farr also was booked into jail on the warrants and has two open cases for charges related to drugs and theft, according to the report.
The suspect was released to pretrial services on both open cases but is being held without bail following the arrest Wednesday.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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