A man who called himself “Young Savage” on Facebook, is responsible for a spate of armed robberies in Lakeland, law enforcement officers say.
Xavier O’Neal, 20, out on bond for an earlier armed robbery, was taken into custody Wednesday, after he robbed a Metro PCS Store located at 701 Combee Road at gunpoint on Sunday.
Polk County deputies say, around 6:30 p.m., a man with a black handgun entered the store, pointed it at two customers and an employee and told them to lie on the ground. The man, later identified as O’Neal, reached over the counter grabbed cash and ordered the store clerk to hand over several boxes of brand-named new mobile phones.
The following day, O’Neal activated one of the phones at an E-Z Wireless store using an old phone number he had in 2013. Detectives, searching social media sites, were able to track the same phone number that was associated with his Facebook page.
A search warrant of O’Neal’s apartment turned up a semi-automatic handgun, which deputies believe was used in the armed robberies, and the stolen cell phones.
Deputies also say, O’Neal had robbed a Lakeland man at gunpoint of his cell phone on September 14. That phone was also retrieved from his home.
On July 13, O’Neal is believed to have committed an armed robbery of a woman as she walked on Morgan Combee Road. Her purse and cell phone were stolen in that armed robbery.
O’Neal is a documented gang member and has a criminal history that includes, battery, grand theft, robbery with a firearm and arson, law enforcement officers said.
O’Neal faces five counts of armed robbery, two attempted robbery charges. He remains in the South County Jail on no bond.
