A man who discharged a firearm during two 7-Eleven robberies in Federal Way the morning of May 19 was arrested, but then booked into Pierce County Jail for four Tacoma robberies that preceded the May 19 robberies.

According to the Federal Way Police Department, at about 1:18 a.m. and 2:29 a.m. May 19, officers responded to two convenience store robberies that were determined to have the same perpetrator. According to the department, in both robberies, the suspect fired a handgun three times into the air before fleeing with stolen cash.

“Using the city’s video surveillance system, officers were able to identify a vehicle seen leaving both crime scenes,” the department stated. “That vehicle led them to a registered owner’s residence, where a suspect was identified.”

According to the department, a search warrant was obtained for the residence, and officers recovered a firearm, ammunition and clothing matching what was seen in surveillance footage from the robberies. The suspect, identified as Mesach Mesa Lautalo, was then arrested and booked.

According to FWPD Cmdr. Kyle Buchanan, the first robbery occurred at 7-Eleven, located at 28719 Military Road South, and the second robbery occurred at 7-Eleven, located at 31006 Pacific Highway South. Buchanan said the Tacoma Police Department was involved in the investigation and took Lautalo into custody for charging.

Buchanan said the FWPD will refer charges to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and the suspect will also be charged in Pierce County. Buchanan said that when something like this has occurred in the past, the defendant has had two separate trials.

According to Pierce County Superior Court documents, the 25-year-old defendant, Lautalo, was charged with four counts of first-degree robbery and four counts of drive-by shooting.

According to documents, on May 14, the defendant robbed two Tacoma convenience stores and fired his gun after leaving the store on both occasions. Documents stated that, on May 18, the defendant robbed two more Tacoma convenience stores and fired his weapon into the air upon departure.

According to documents, after FWPD officers shared a description of the defendant, the manner in which the robberies were carried out and the license plate of the vehicle he was driving, Tacoma police believed he was the same suspect from their robbery cases.

According to documents, after the defendant was detained and arrested, he admitted to committing all six robberies and firing his gun during them, and the defendant said he fired his weapon to scare the clerks he robbed so they would not follow him.

According to documents, the defendant told Tacoma officers that during the first Federal Way robbery, he fired his weapon because he thought the clerk might have been trying to grab a gun, so he shot a round into the wall next to the clerk to scare him. The defendant stated that he did not receive any money from that robbery.

Documents stated that the defendant also admitted to the second Federal Way robbery, but he did not know how much money he received from that robbery. The defendant stated that he acted alone and that no one else was involved in the robberies. When asked why he committed the robberies, the defendant told officers that he had no job and his niece had a birthday party coming up.