Last Updated: Friday, 1:29 p.m.
The Shell station at the corner of Palm Coast Parkway and Club House Drive was robbed at gunpoint at 7:30 or 7:35 Thursday evening (Dec. 14).
By early Friday morning, the alleged robber was in custody.
“They made the arrest,” a sheriff’s spokesperson confirmed this morning. “There is a lot more to this story than the robbery.”
Charles E. Rushing-Griffen, 27, was booked at the Flagler County jail at 5:23 this morning on charges of armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and driving on a suspended or revoked license.
Rushing-Griffen is also a suspect in an armed robbery at Terra Nova, the Bunnell restaurant, earlier this week (an incident neither the Bunnell Police Department nor the city administration revealed until today) and in an attempted robbery at the Mobil station on Pine Lakes Parkway. He has not yet been charged for those allegations, but Sheriff Rick Staly said this morning that “it’s my understanding he’s made admissions to both armed robberies and the attempted robbery at the Mobil station.”
It was detective work from the robbery at Terra Nova and the attempted robbery at the Mobil station that led sheriff’s deputies and detective to develop Rushing-Griffen as a person of interest, then to know where to go to make the arrest this morning.
Surveillance Footage of Shell Store Robbery
The Terra Nova robbery took place at closing time Tuesday, Dec. 5. On Wednesday, Staly said, “a person was seen walking up to the Mobil station wearing a ski mask but the door was locked, and it looked like he had a gun in his pocket, slightly visible, and so he fled. Through our investigation of that we developed a person of interest, and when we had the armed robbery last night at the Shell station, a camera had pulled him up before he had pulled down his ski mask, and one of our detectives recognized him as the same person of interest we had from the Mobil station. We knew where he lived, we staked out his house, saw him and [two other people] leave the house, and conducted a felony traffic stop on him and arrested him.”
Rushing-Griffen is a resident of 6 Ryall Lane B in Palm Coast. He complied with the traffic stop. “We had such a massive felony stop going on that there was no place for him to go anywhere,” the sheriff said. “I believe we pulled him over on US 1 near the county line. It’s great police work, we had a serial robber that we had identified off the street, at least as a person of interest, that we had identified, hopefully he’ll go away for a very long time.”
An armed robbery is a first-degree felony, exposing an individual on conviction to 30 years in prison. If committed by a felon, it becomes a life felony.
According to Rushing-Griffen’s arrest report, released this morning, he pointed a silver-colored, long-barrel revolver at the store clerk and took about $200 in cash–along with a pack of Newport 100 cigarettes, threatening to come back to the store and shoot the clerk if she notified police. the gunman then fled on foot, going south across Palm Coast Parkway. Store surveillance footage shows a remarkably calm clerk who raises her arms when confronted with the man and the gun, packs some bills in a plastic bag, and hands him the cigarette pack he demands (the man curtly grabs it from her). When he walks out, she presses the alarm button then just as calmly picks up the phone and dials, presumably reaching 911.
The Sheriff’s Office has been highly effective in quickly securing suspects in the aftermath of high-profile, violent crimes, a policing success Staly attributes to a form of intelligence-led policing developed out of weekly “crime-map” meetings, where raw intelligence is analyzed and leads developed. Rushing-Griffen had been the subject of this week’s meeting before the Thursday evening robbery. The combination of video at the Mobil station, eyewitness accounts at Terra Nova, Rushing-Griffen’s very distinctive size (he weighs about 300 pounds and is 6 feet tall) and his own actions at the Mobil station and not putting down his mask immediately before the Shell robbery combined to lead detectives to the arrest.
Rushing-Griffen was known to local law enforcement, having been the subject of an interrogation, but not arrest, on Oct. 2. That day, sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at his house in an incident that netted the discovery of a cache of weapons, including an assault rifle, and two arrests–Shawn Crawford and Tariq Khawaja. Khawaja was one of the two people seen going into Rushing-Griffen’s car as the trio drove off Ryall Lane Thursday evening. The other was Camerae Lateice Hubbert, who has a history of minor arrests in the county. In an interrogation at the sheriff’s office, Khawaja told detectives he’d been spending the evening with his girlfriend–Hubbert–when Rushing-Griffen left the house to drop off his girlfriend’s child in Bunnell. He did not identify the person when shown the surveillance video from the Shell station. But Hubbert identified him as Rushing-Griffen.
When deputies executed what they refer to as a “high-risk traffic stop” at the 1200 block of US1, they found $270 on Rushing-Griffen. Cmdr. Steve Brand saw “the butt of a silver revolver resting under the driver’s seat,” according to the arrest report.
In his interview with detectives, Rushing-Griffen “became very forthcoming,” according to his arrest report, but his statements are almost entirely blacked out. One line that wasn’t states that he “gave a detailed account of the incident with details only the perpetrator would know.” He was also interviewed about a similar robbery in Ormond Beach but denied involvement in anything of the sort outside of Flagler County. The arrest report notes that he has been convicted four times of felonies previously.
After the robbery Thursday evening the search had taken place in the adjoining apartment complexes and residential lots with two K-9 units and numerous sheriff’s units. No helicopter was available for the search.
At the time the sheriff’s office did not immediately have a description of the assailant, who was wearing a mask, and it’s wasn’t clear what he got away with, or whether he was driving a car. The search, however, had been focused on the area close to the store, which is located at 320 Palm Coast Parkway Northeast.
Roads were not closed in the area, but access to the Shell station was restricted to authorities for now. No one was injured in the incident.
Detectives were going through surveillance video around 9 p.m. and following up on certain leads. “We’re hoping that the video will give us a lot,” the spokesman said at the time: it apparently did. “They think they have a suspect car now. But I don’t have the details on the car.”
Will Camp says
This used to be such and nice place to live.
len hann says
Seems to me more police presence on SR 100 and PC PKWY near the 95 ramps would go a long way in keeping unwanted visitors from thinking PC is easy pickings. May even result in catching a few of these perps as they scoot back to the freeway.
palmcoaster says
Hope they catch the crooks!
We all around here be aware the robber/s are on the loose…keep garage and other doors closed!
Anonymous says
With 25+ deputies in Palm Coast (a small foot print jurisdiction) there should be no reason they can’t catch the robber. Let’s just see how good FCSO really is. Every time I see an officer they are sitting parked eating donuts or chatting with another officer while their Sheriff runs around beating his chest.
Donnie Riddle says
Rick Staly and his men will be filling a vacancy
at the green roof inn shortly, you can put your money on that!
Really says
Well surprise surprise it wasnt the Lone Ranger. May your Holidays be joyous in the Green roof Inn and elsewhere Idiot
Really says
Oh and nice job LEO’s Thank you
Really says
@Anon dont know what your beef is with LEO but the old cliches dont jive with this Sheriff
Safe Citizen says
Thank you for the men in Blue and Green for working so hard to make us safe! I knew you would catch the man who terrorized your citizens.
Donnie Riddle says
Anonymous I reckon you seen how good they are ain’t you!
BlueJammer says
Great police work, Sheriff Staly and FCSO! Thank you!
Mr G says
I live in bunnell & eat at TERRANOVAS often. I knew they got robbed wondered why it was not in the paper !! thanks for getting this criminal off our streets so FAST
DRedder says
Crimminals & Thug Lives amongst us. Just another valid reason why Palm Coast doesn’t need “Affordable Housing” (the political correct term) other wise known as low income, section 8, welfare, duplexes or cluster or high density housing. Keep building it / them and all you’ll get are the shit and miscreants who’ve worn out their welcome from everywhere they’ve already been. Are there some honest and law abiding residents in those duplexes and cluster housing condos we already have sure there are. But do we, the resident property owners / taxpayers need more housing to supplement more of the Oxygen Thieves? NO!
Good Detective work FCSO!
Really says
Does that answer how good lol
Cathy W says
They better nip this stuff in the bud. My son who lives outside the area says the news is reporting Palm Coast area as high crime! We need our visitors and new folks to our area. We don’t need the crime element coming here thinking we are easy targets.
FlaglerLive says
A quick note for perspective: Chicago had 765 murders last year, it passed the 500 mark this year. It broke its own record for tourists visiting the city last year and is set to break it again this year, pulling in more than 54 million visitors. The cause-and-effect link between crime and tourism, perceived or demonstrated, is usually not supported. Further, the local crime rate has been flat or declining slightly for several years.
Outsider says
I highly doubt the tourists are flocking to the south side of Chicago, where most of those crimes are being committed. Being Chicago encompasses such a large area, you can still go to the lakefront and be miles away from the crime. The crappy rentals, duplexes, and now the high density housing proliferate all areas of Palm Coast, with the exception of the “gated” communities.
palmcoaster says
Thank you Flaglerlive for reporting so quick and effective that allowed me to copy my friends and neighbors nearby the Shell Station. Unfortunately is not the enjoyable news for Holidays times but is reality and communicating and being informed among us is vital to be able to help our law enforcement to do their work. If we see suspicious activities or individuals in our communities or incidents just call our Sheriff as I believe they are doing a great job and take our leads very seriously and resolve the problems and do it while risking their lives day in and day out. I speak for our own expeience lately in our Palm Harbor Community. My appreciation to our Sheriff Department and please all officers be safe and Happy Holidays!
r&r says
When low cost housing is made available you can expect this. The housing going up on Old Kings is a breeding place for this. People living in gated communities have a better chance then we do.
Old Hammock says
I agree with Will Camp. It really did use to be a nice place to live.
EJR says
Gas Station Clerks LIVES MATTER!
Nancy W. says
This wasand is good police work by our deputies. He has been caught in record time. Your criticism is totally wrong.
Anonymous says
I agree with you Cathy. The amount of crime here in the city has just gone crazy. I don’t know what has changed that has created this crime that didn’t ‘used to be, Maybe I was naive to it and didn’t hear about it before so I just didn’t know. This place has become a scary place to live and the crime reputation is spreading and spreading fast. It is not a surprise when so many people from so many other crime ridden places move her and bring the riff-raff with them. I hope this man gets life so he can never have the opportunity to do a convenience store clerk the way he did this one…..how frightening….she deserves an award and a pay raise. Police get higher pay and retirement for putting their lives in danger, now its time to think about people like this that don’t have an agency behind them or a weapon on hand to defend themselves. Thank goodness this clerk was not harmed physically. Thank goodness to that the conditions were right to be able to nap this guy. It wouldn’t have been much longer and he would have been long gone out of this county.
Anonymous says
It is shameful that the people who dine in Bunnell were not noticed of the robbery at Terranova’s, there is no excuse to not let the people know. Shame on you!!!!!!! I guess efforts were not made to catch the robber since the people were not alerted. Someone may have seen something that may have been instrumental in catching the bad guy.
thomas says
Great work FCSO. THANK YOU.
gmath55 says
The arrest report notes that he has been convicted four times of felonies previously. He will be out again because his bond is only $20,000 which equals $2,000.
http://www.daytonamugshots.com/Details.aspx?BookingID=2017-00002744
woodchuck says
Tiz the season to rob and pillage.Nailed him-nice!
Forrest Gump says
So like ain’t like a box of chocolates after all. Take a look for yourself how many times Bubba Gump has been busted! https://florida.arrests.org/search.php?fname=charles&lname=rushing&fpartial=True
Nãoimporta says
Tug wil be out soon
Stanley Wolak says
Super police work by Sheriff Staly and his great Posse!!! Job well done by our great law Officers.Thank You All once again.
Gkimp says
Anonymous, you don’t have a clue! Most jurisdictions our size have 80-100 sworn officers and 20 support staff. F.C.S.O. does an outstanding job.
Emily says
@gmath55, his bond is close to 600k, he needs about 60k to get out. Don’t see that happening
bob says
This guy is an idiot and a piece of crap. He should be locked up for life with all of his crappy wannabe thug friends and rot. People who think doing things like this is ok make me sick. This is why my wife and I are packing, incase we run across a loser like this guy. It is very sad
Cliff says
It happens everywhere you go. One day beautiful area, with cut lawns clean roads. And yards. The min blacks move in . trouble starts drugs, fighting shootings, filth all over. Yards with no grass, total destruction. Then they cry that they don’t have anything..the neighbor hood just went to he’ll in a few years your once beautiful place is no more than a. Ugly Sht hole.
gmath55 says
Where does it say the bond is 600K? Here it says:
http://www.daytonamugshots.com/Details.aspx?BookingID=2017-00002744 it is $15,000 plus $5,000.
Concerned res says
The new development on Old Kings will be section 8?
Anonymous says
I know him personally he’s the father of my best friends child he’s not a bad guy he was a victim of circumstance his hand was force when someone is threatening your life to do there dirty work what else can you do yes it’s sad he did this but the shit you people are saying you don’t know the story so STFU with all your accusations and fake detective work….. Think about it his daughter has to grow up without a father now because he didn’t think he listened to his friends instead of doing the right thing but please don’t talk down on him he’s not a bad guy he’s a good man sweet as pie I jus wish I could’ve been there I could’ve stopped him I know I could’ve 😭😭😭😭
Anonymous says
Or my best friend could’ve stopped him but she was home in a whole different county sad it really is
MannyHM says
On the immediate arrest in one word – Impressive !
John says
About apartments on old kings road. Property was rezoned from commercial to apt. residential. My understanding is the owner wants to sell property. Zone change does not say low income or section eight. It could be condos, or apartments, high or low income is not known until a permit is applied for.
I will wait until something is definate before I decide to be for or against.
Anonymous too says
He is not a bad guy??? He held up innocent people, To me that’s a bad guy!! He knew the choices he was making when he pointed that gun in peoples faces!!!! He knew the Consequences of his actions before he committed the crime. Unfortunately that baby will grow up without a daddy the rest of her life. But honestly what kind of father would he have been to that little girl anyway??? She’s probably better off.
LONG TIME LOCAL LEO says
Great Job by Our SHERIFF’S DEPT. No He’s Not Really a “NICE GUY” He Robbed The Store @ Gun Point !!! What If The Gun WENT Off, & He Shot The CLERK ??? IF he’s Found Guilty, HOPE HE GETS Some Serious Time !!! & You Must Live In OZ If Ya Think, Officer’s ON Duty Don’t Talk To Each Other Einstein!
Really says
Omfg hes not a bad guy.? Well he certainly isnt good and rather stupid geez Smmfh