Man with rifle tackled inside Mall of America charged with aggravated robbery
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- A 28-year-old Twin Cities man is facing charges after he was arrested Friday for walking through the Mall of America with an "AR-15-style" rifle and robbing two stores.
Cartier Troy Alexander, of Woodbury, was charged Monday in Hennepin County with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery, court documents show.
At a press conference last week, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said that Alexander was walking "nonchalantly" through the mall carrying a rifle. One shopper saw him and called mall security, which responded by tackling Alexander as he left a store. No one was hurt.
The mall was not put on lockdown, Hodges said, because authorities did not want to escalate the situation.
While Alexander was walking through the mall, he allegedly robbed two stores. First, he swiped a mechanical toy from a kiosk.
According to a criminal complaint, Alexander took the toy and walked off. When the kiosk worker told him he needed to pay for the toy, Alexander turned to the worker, said nothing, and continued walking.
Later, Alexander robbed the Lids store, showing the workers his rifle and telling them to put jerseys into a bag. The workers said that Alexander never pointed his weapon at anyone, but the workers told authorities they were extremely afraid of him.
As he walked out of the Lids store, the security team took Alexander to the ground. Hodges said the team had followed Alexander on security cameras, cleared the immediate area and ambushed the 28-year-old, who is also the suspect in another armed robbery in Minneapolis that same morning.
Authorities say that Alexander is licensed to carry and has no criminal record. If convicted of the robbery charges, Alexander faces up to 20 years in prison on each count. Alexander is slated to make his first court appearance Tuesday.
Alexander's arrest was the second incident involving guns at the Mall of America this month. In early August, gunfire sent shoppers running for cover and the mall into lockdown. While no one was hurt in that shooting, five people are facing charges.
