Fort Worth man arrested in Oklahoma after two-day crime spree, police say

James Anderson, 28, armed with a large knife, walked up to a Wal-Mart employee on Monday afternoon on West Berry Street and told him, “I don’t want to kill you,” and demanded the employee’s pickup keys and wallet, according to an affidavit.

Anderson then drove away in the stolen Dodge Ram truck, the affidavit states.

Detectives say they believe that Anderson then robbed three other people in Fort Worth, one in Euless and committed two other holdups in Gainesville on Monday and Tuesday. In one of the Fort Worth holdups, a victim was stabbed.

Police say the crime spree ended Tuesday at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., when authorities arrested Anderson, of Fort Worth, and accused him of breaking into a car in the casino parking lot.

Authorities also recovered the Dodge Ram stolen in Fort Worth.

Anderson remained in the Love County Jail in Marietta, Okla., on Wednesday awaiting extradition back to Texas where he faces robbery charges in Fort Worth, Euless and Gainesville.

Before he was arrested at WinStar, Anderson is accused of committing two robberies in Gainesville, on the Texas side of the border about 12 miles south of the casino, police said.

An affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram on Wednesday gave this account of the robbery spree in Fort Worth:

The Wal-Mart employee was on his lunch break at about 1:40 p.m. when he walked to his 2003 Dodge Ram, which was parked in the parking lot, in the 700 block of West Berry Street.

After the holdup, detectives retrieved the store security camera video, which they say showed that Anderson had been inside before the robbery. Detectives were able to identify him as the robbery suspect from multiple distinctive clothing items.

Later in the day, other robberies were reported where the stolen Dodge Ram pickup was used and the suspect matched the description of the Wal-Mart holdup.

A man of the same description and driving the stolen Dodge tried to rob a woman and her two children outside a Subway in 5300 block of Trail Lake Drive. Police said that the woman and children were uninjured and that the man didn’t take anything.

On Monday afternoon, a man matching the description in the same pickup stabbed a man in the back and robbed him in the parking lot of the Home Depot at 9509 White Settlement Road. The victim was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, the robber, still in the Dodge, held up a woman at knifepoint in the parking lot of a Home Depot at 7950 South Freeway.

Two hours later, he was in Euless, where a robbery was reported in the parking lot of a gas station in the 200 block of North Main Street.

At 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, detectives believe Anderson hit again, this time in Gainesville, about 65 miles north of Fort Worth.

Gainesville police responded to a robbery call in the parking lot of Applebee’s in the 4300 block of North Interstate 35. A 24-year-old woman told officers that she had been in the parking lot waiting for a friend when a man with a knife approached her and demanded her wallet. After taking her wallet, the man got into a Dodge Ram and drove away.

Minutes later, a 41-year-old man called Gainesville police to report that he had been robbed by a man wielding a knife. The man had been in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn adjacent to the Applebee’s parking lot. The victim told police that the robber took his wallet and drove off in a Dodge Ram pickup.

According to the affidavit, regional broadcasts were sent out to law enforcement agencies about the stolen truck and suspect. Fort Worth police received a response from Oklahoma authorities on Tuesday evening that the suspect had been arrested and the stolen truck was recovered.

Anderson was arrested Tuesday evening by officers with the Lighthorse Police Department of the Chickasaw Nation.

He was in the Love County Jail with bail set at $100,000 on a burglary charge. No bail had been set for the charge of possession of a stolen vehicle.

This story was originally published January 21, 2015 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Fort Worth man arrested in Oklahoma after two-day crime spree, police say."