Gainesville Police found and arrested the man who robbed an Independent Florida Alligator employee at gunpoint on Aug. 25.
Maurice Freeland, 22, confessed during a later police interrogation to robbing the Alligator employee outside of the newspaper office at about 6 a.m. on Aug. 25, Detective Bennie Smith said. He was arrested Aug. 31.
Video surveillance cameras recorded the robbery, providing a clear depiction of the suspect.
Detective Jeff Nordberg, lead investigator for the case, discovered during his research that Officer Bernard Exavier had contacted a person matching the suspect's description on Aug. 25 at about 2 a.m.
Exavier completed a field contact card based on his interaction with Freeland that included information on his height, weight, race, clothing and other characteristics, Smith said. Patrol officers routinely use these cards to document anyone they meet in their area who appears suspicious.
Freeland was walking near a neighborhood within a half-mile of the robbery site, at 1105 W University Ave., when Exavier approached him.
Police also believed the suspect may have been left-handed, based on his body movements and the fact that he was holding the gun in his left hand on the video. Freeland is left-handed.
One key detail that led Nordberg to believe Freeland and the suspect were the same person was the blue bandana the suspect was wearing in the video, Smith said.
Exavier had made a note that Freeland was wearing a bandana on his field citizen card.
Smith and Nordberg visited Freeland's permanent address in Archer but didn't find him. They left a message for him, and he later called them and came in for an interview.
When Freeland confessed to the crime, he said it was because he was in "dire financial straits" and had a bit of a gambling problem, Smith said.
"It was a really good job by Detective Nordberg in his research to locate that field contact card and a really good job by Officer Exavier to take the time to stop [Freeland] and talk to him," Smith said.
Freeland, who is from Archer but was staying in an apartment on Southwest 13th Street, was taken to the Alachua County Jail. He faces first-degree felony charges for robbery with a firearm.
His bond is set at $100,000, according to the Alachua County Jail inmate database.
