First, he robbed a Wawa at gunpoint, cops say. It was his red belt that did him in.
Roderick Ferguson was arrested last week after the Broward Sheriff’s Office says he fired his gun in the air and then tried to get away from deputies.
But it was what he was wearing that landed him in deeper trouble.
According to BSO, the 33-year-old was wearing a red belt when he was arrested Thursday. The suspect in an armed robbery at a Wawa about 12 hours earlier had the same belt. In fact, he was wearing the same outfit caught on surveillance cameras, BSO said.
Ferguson was being held Monday night in Broward’s Main Jail with no bond. He faces charges for both crimes including possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, robbery with a firearm and discharging a firearm in public.
According to BSO, Ferguson entered a Wawa convenience store on Southwest 12th Avenue in Deerfield Beach just after 4:30 a.m. Thursday and pointed a gun at the clerk. He then stole money, threatened customers and then left before deputies in the store arrived, BSO said.
“After gathering evidence on scene, a BSO sergeant took note of a unique element of the armed robber’s appearance — a red belt,” BSO said in a news release. “The sergeant also alerted his fellow deputies about the colorful item the armed robber was wearing.”
Then just before 4 p.m., deputies responded to a report of a shooting in the 1200 block of South Military Trail, also in Deerfield Beach.
Witnesses told deputies they saw Ferguson shooting in the air about five times, according to his arrest report. Deputies say Ferguson tried to get away and had to be subdued with a Taser.
“An alert deputy noticed Ferguson’s red belt,” BSO said in the release. “The deputy remembered the information sent out earlier in the day and alerted his supervisor.”
Deputies reviewed surveillance images from the armed robbery at Wawa and discovered that Ferguson was wearing the same clothes as the person in the images.
Ferguson was arrested and charged with armed robbery.
