Jacorey Forte
Chattanooga Police have arrested 24-year-old Jacorey Forte with the armed robbery of the Dollar General on Lee Highway on Friday.
Forte, of 7101 Glenfield Lane, is charged with aggravated robbery, theft of property, evading arrest, reckless driving, driving on a revoked license, violating a traffic control device, driving wrong way, and failure to yield.
A clerk said he was heating his food in the break room when a black male came around the counter by opening the gate and said "Hey." He said the man had a black semi-automatic handgun in his hand pointing it down.
He demanded the money in the cash register and the safe. The clerk got out about $1,620 and gave it to the robber.
The clerk said a second suspect was standing outside the counter and appeared to be a lookout. The two left the store together. The gunman was about 5'6" with his head "wrapped like a mummy." The lookout was about six feet tall and "skinny like a bean pole." The lookout was wearing a surgical mask.
A female employee who was also in the break room said she watched the robbery on surveillance video as it took place. She said she ran out the store after them and saw them leave in a black Ford Escape from about 2014.
An investigator said video showed a black Ford Escape, about 2014, pull behind the store at 8:01. They entered the store at 8:09 and ran back to the car three minutes later.
The next day officers spotted the car matching that used in the robbery. There was a chase and the vehicle crashed. Forte was taken into custody.
It was found the car - a 2014 Ford Escape - had been stolen in Florida on Sept. 10. An iPhone and surgical mask were found in the car. Forte said he bought it in Fort Walton from a guy named Mello. He denied it was at the Dollar General.
Forte was wearing house slippers and gray sweatpants with a stain. Police said that matches that of one of the people involved in the holdup - the lookout.