James Cook being held in jail with no bond provided on most charges
James Anthony Cook, 40, of 2122 Temple St. in Sarasota, has been arrested and charged with multiple counts in connection with the March 6 armed robbery of the Walgreens standing at 1225 S. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, the Sarasota Police Department has reported.
Cook is facing one count of Robbery with a Firearm, one count of Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon, three counts of kidnapping, and one count of Possession of a Weapon or Ammo by a Convicted Florida Felon, his Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Division booking record shows.
Cook was ordered held without bond on all of the counts except the Aggravated Battery charge; for that, bond was set at $10,000, 12th Judicial Circuit Court records show.
Cook’s arraignment has been set for April 4, the booking record notes.
At 10:47 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, Cook was identified as the suspect who entered the Midtown Plaza Walgreens with a handgun and demanded money, a Police Department news release said. He “held employees and a customer at gunpoint before stealing cash and prescription pills from the pharmacy,” the release pointed out.
“Thanks to the relentless efforts of detectives and multiple partner agencies” — including the North Port Police Department, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, the Homeless Outreach Team, the Police Department’s Real-Time Operations Center, and the Community Action Team — “Cook was located and arrested without incident” about 1 p.m. on March 7, the release added.
The Probable Cause Affidavit for Cook indicates that an employee of the Walgreens had “opened the large rolling door to the storage area to take the trash to the dumpster.” Then, after the man returned to the store to retrieve the trash, the affidavit continues, as he was exiting “the store through the door that leads directly into the storage area, he observed a subject entering through the southwest storage entrance.”
The suspect was wearing a mask and carrying a black handgun, the affidavit notes.
“The suspect yelled, ‘Get the f**k down,’ ” as well as, “ ‘I’m robbing the store,’ ” the affidavit says.
The suspect then pointed the gun in the employee’s face and demanded that the employee turn around, the affidavit adds. The suspect held the gun to the back of the employee’s head and demanded that the employee open the door that led into the store, the affidavit continues.
After the employee opened the door, the affidavit says, the employee entered the store with the suspect behind him, still holding the gun at the employee’s head. The employee then entered the security code for the office door, and he and the suspect entered the office, the affidavit adds. “The suspect demanded that [the employee] open the safe,” which the employee did. Then the suspect ordered the employee to “get down on the ground and look away,” the affidavit says.
Afterward, the suspect ordered the employee to open a second safe, the affidavit continues, which the employee did. The employee “removed the cash register drawers and placed them on the ground,” after which the suspect ordered the employee to take him to the pharmacy. The employee did so, the affidavit says. Again, the suspect followed the employee, holding a gun at the back of the employee’s head, the affidavit notes.
When another employee appeared, the affidavit indicates, the suspect pointed the gun at that person. While the suspect had the gun aimed at the second man, the affidavit points out, the suspect “grabbed [the first employee] by the collar of his shirt and directed him to the pharmacy. The suspect demanded several types of narcotics,” the affidavit continues, including hydrocodone, Xanax, Adderall and Vicodin.
At that point, a customer was trying to find a clerk to ring up some items, the affidavit says; the customer knocked on the pharmacy door while calling out, “Hello,” the affidavit adds. The customer “was met with a gun pointed at his face when the pharmacy door opened,” the affidavit adds.
The suspect ordered the customer inside the pharmacy and onto the floor, the affidavit says.
After the suspect placed numerous prescription medications inside a plastic bag, the affidavit continues, the suspect left with cash from the safe, using the same door through which he had entered the store.
Sarasota Police Department personnel were able to review surveillance video to view the incident, the affidavit notes. At one point, the video showed the suspect using his right hand to touch a trash can with a plastic bag liner and then “placing a stack of banded money [in the plastic liner].”
A Criminalistics technician was able to lift a fingerprint at the scene, which enabled officers to identify Cook as the suspect, the affidavit says.
A Police Department search of criminal records found that Cook had had four felony convictions, the affidavit adds.
A Sarasota News Leader review of records maintained by the Office of the Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller found a July 2003 case in which Cook was charged with dealing in stolen property, though the records were not available for online viewing. Then, in an October 2003 case — with records also not provided online — Cook was charged with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
Most recently, prior to the Walgreens incident, Cook was charged in early February with Burglary with Assault or Battery, a first-degree felony. The arrest warrant was not available for review in that case, either.