Police searching for suspect in Arby’s robbery

Josh Echt

Police are searching for a suspect who attempted aggravated robbery at Arby’s Restaurant on East Main Street shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday evening.

No injuries were reported.

Police describe the suspect as a thin, white male approximately 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9 inches tall. The suspect appeared to be 50 years old and was wearing a beige-colored jacket and a blue-gray fedora hat.

“He left on foot,” Kent Police Department Lieutenant Ray Stein said. “There was no sign of a car.”

Arby’s general manager, Barbara Rullis, said the restaurant closed immediately after the robbery.

“My employees called me and told me what happened, so I came over immediately,” Rullis said.

Stein said aggravated robbery is a felony of the first degree, which carries “serious jail time.”

“First-degree felonies are the highest felony classifications,” Stein said. “Every situation varies, but felonies occur when incidents contain violence, injuries or if a gun is used.”

The lowest felony rating is a fifth-degree felony. Lesser crimes are classified as misdemeanors or minor misdemeanors.

Depending on circumstances, robberies can be classified as robberies or aggravated robberies, Stein said. Robberies carry a lesser felony rating than aggravated robberies.

Sunday’s robbery is considered aggravated, he said, because the threat of force was used in the act.

Stein estimated the restaurant had not been robbed in several years.

The most recent robbery in Kent took place at the Bank One ATM on South Water Street this summer, he said.

Contact public affairs reporter Josh Echt at [email protected].