2 suspects ID'd in Yellowknife convenience store robbery

Crime Stoppers tips, a distinctive hoodie and past robberies have resulted in two suspects being identified in the knifepoint robbery of a Yellowknife convenience store earlier this year.

The robbery occurred in the early morning of Jan. 14 at the Mac's Convenience Store on Forrest Drive.

According to an RCMP news release and court documents, a clerk was tending to the food counter when a man approached him from behind, pointed a knife at him and demanded money. The clerk handed over the $100 in the cash register and the man immediately fled.

Shortly after, a police cruiser pulled up to the gas pumps outside the store and the clerk told the officer, Const. Suzanne Doucette, he had just been robbed.

The clerk gave a description of the suspect: the man was about five feet 10 inches tall, with a slim build, and was holding a black-handled 23-centimetre-long knife. The clerk said he would recognize the man if he saw him again.

Doucette later reviewed the surveillance tape from the store. She could see the robber was wearing a bright blue hoodie with a bright red Under Armour logo on the front. The hoodie was cinched tight around the man's face. Because of the poor video quality and the angle of the man to the camera, there was no clear image of the man's face.

2 men identified

Police circulated a still image from the video in a request for the public's assistance. According to information they filed in court, investigators received two responses through Crime Stoppers from people who said they thought they knew the man responsible for the robbery.

Both said the man they believe was the robber had the same distinctive Under Armour hoodie, and both said he is pictured wearing it on his Facebook page.

However, the tipsters identified two different men: a 40-year-old white man and a 20-year-old Inuk.

A police check revealed that both men have been convicted of similar robberies in Yellowknife. The Inuk man had robbed another convenience store twice on consecutive days in 2016. The 40-year-old white man had held a knife to the chest of a clerk at another store in 2005, cleaned out the till, then fled leaving $20 bills on the ground in his wake.

The Mac's clerk later gave another interview with police, describing the robber as a young Indigenous man with light skin and dark eyebrows. He said the man is more than five feet seven inches tall, with a slim build and in his early 20s.

Police revealed details of the investigation in an application for a court order they applied for in early February to get booking photos of the two men on file at the North Slave Correctional Centre.

RCMP say they have not charged anyone at this time. They would provide no other details about the investigation, as it may end up before the courts.