Missoula police have released a photograph of the man who robbed Gilly’s Gas at gunpoint early Sunday morning. Meanwhile, detectives continue to investigate another pair of armed robberies that happened within an hour of each other later in the evening.
Both of the nighttime robberies took place in the vicinity of a grocery store – the first in an alley off of South Fifth Street West, near the Orange Street Food Farm, and the second in the parking lot outside Albertsons on South Russell Street.
Two male victims at Orange Street handed over their wallets, while the third male victim, at Albertsons, refused to cooperate with the assailant. In both cases, the gunman ran away.
Victims’ descriptions of the grocery store robber are similar, said Missoula Police Sgt. Bob Bouchee: white male, about 5-feet-9 with a stocky build. The robberies took place at 7:15 p.m. and 8:20 p.m.
The height, build, ethnicity and sex of those descriptions closely match the description given to police by the victim in the Gilly’s Gas holdup.
Detectives describe the Gilly’s robber as a white male between 20 and 30 years old, who stands between 5-feet-9 and 6 feet tall. He has a stocky build and was wearing a red bandanna over his face at the time of the robbery.
He also wore a black sweatshirt and tan pants – possibly Carhartt brand. There were no injuries.
The Gilly’s robbery took place at 4:45 a.m. at 2340 S. Third St. W. After pointing a handgun at the cashier and taking the money, the suspect ran away.
Police have called the robberies “brazen,” and Bouchee said it’s rare to see these types of robberies in Missoula.
“It is not very common around here, not to say that it doesn’t happen,” said Bouchee. “But it doesn’t happen often.”
Bouchee added that while it’s very possible that the night robberies are related, it’s hard to say the same about the Gilly’s incident.
“They happened on the same day, but the Gilly’s robbery was early Sunday morning, while the other two were later that evening,” Bouchee said. “We’re not ruling out the possibility that they are connected, but it does not appear that way.”