Suspect who allegedly robbed Haywood Dollar General arrested in Georgia

Maggie Valley Police allege that Johnson and another man, who hasn’t been arrested, held up the Dollar General back in January.

Following the robbery, Maggie Valley Lt. Matt Boger said the crime occurred at about 7:45 p.m. that night when two males waited for all other customers to leave, ordered the two cashiers to lock the doors, then took money from the cash registers and “other locations in the store.”

“The suspects did appear to be armed with handguns,” Boger said back in January, adding that the two employees were detained in the store office during the robbery.

Now that one of the alleged robbers has been arrested, Boger said a key part of the investigation was how well the scene was handled by the officers who first arrived on-scene.

“Officers Crocker and Bellows did a great job responding to that initial call and securing evidence,” Boger said. “Leads that were generated from the scene itself later led to the possible location of the suspects in Georgia.”

Maggie Valley Police Chief Russ Gilliland had high praise for Boger’s investigation of the robbery, which required a significant degree of coordination with other law enforcement at all levels.

“His involvement with this case and how he took to working with federal and state agencies, along with some of his preliminary findings from the scene, really fast-tracked locating the suspect,” Gilliland said.

Johnson was ultimately charged with multiple felonies in Haywood County, including armed robbery, second-degree kidnapping and possession of a firearm by a felon. The case is still under investigation as law enforcement attempts to identify and locate the man who accompanied Johnson during the robbery.