Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Authorities have named 21-year-old Mikale Immanuel Fuye as a suspect connected to an armed robbery that took place at a convenience store on Hawthorne Road back in May.
The incident unfolded in the early morning hours of May 10, around 5:20 a.m., when deputies from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office rushed to Circle K located at 4310 SE Hawthorne Road following a report of an armed robbery. Although the suspects managed to flee before deputies arrived, surveillance footage captured two masked men, identified as Black males, wielding firearms. Notably, the suspects wore gloves—each donning just one glove—while the other hand was covered with a black sock. One suspect held a Smith & Wesson Model 6906 9mm handgun, and his accomplice brandished a brown Ruger 10-22 rifle, distinguishable by a red bandanna tied to it in a unique fashion.
During the terrifying ordeal, a store employee and a customer were present. Under the threat of a gun, the employee complied with the robbers’ demands by opening the cash register, from which one suspect swiftly retrieved cash. Meanwhile, the other suspect commanded the customer to lie on the ground and proceeded to frisk him. The situation further escalated when the first suspect menacingly pressed his rifle’s barrel against the customer’s neck.
The heist culminated with the suspects making off with personal belongings from both victims alongside the store’s cash. The robbers then reportedly fled north along SE 43rd Street. Despite a prompt response by law enforcement, the perpetrators managed to escape capture at the scene.
On May 18, deputies responded to a home where the victims said that while they had been out during the day, someone had forced entry into the home, had ransacked it, and had stolen at least $6,000 in cash, $15,000 in jewelry, a handgun, business checks, credit cards, passports, and social security cards.
Deputies canvassed the neighborhood and found surveillance video that showed an older white Lincoln sedan arriving at about 8:50 a.m. and then leaving the area at a high rate of speed about an hour later. The sedan had illegal tint on the front windshield and other windows.
A search for white Lincoln sedans in the area only found one, and it was registered to Fuye.
The victims also reported that their credit card was used at multiple stores on the same day as the burglary, and deputies reported that the white Lincoln was captured on video surveillance at one of the businesses.
At about 3:26 p.m. on May 20, a deputy conducted a traffic stop on a white sedan with illegal window tint after the sedan left Majestic Oaks without stopping. The driver allegedly drove away after a deputy instructed him to stop while making eye contact; the car accelerated away and made several turns in an effort to evade deputies but eventually crashed into an uninvolved vehicle that was stopped behind an RTS bus near the intersection of SW 61st Street and SW 8th Avenue. This caused Fuye’s vehicle to travel off the roadway and crash into a tree before coming to rest in a ditch next to a children’s playground.
Fuye allegedly tried to flee by jumping out of the driver’s side window of the car, but he was apprehended by deputies and a K-9. A loaded Smith & Wesson Model 6906 9mm handgun was reportedly found in the street next to Fuye’s crashed car, and forensics reportedly found Fuye’s fingerprint on the gun.
A probable cause search of the vehicle reportedly produced the burglary victim’s business checks and personal checkbook in the trunk, and a firearm was found in the vehicle, but it was not the burglary victim’s stolen firearm. Fuye was charged with six felonies and a misdemeanor in the burglary case and is being held without bail.
After a search warrant was obtained for the vehicle, deputies reportedly found additional items related to the burglary and a glove that matched the glove in the video from Circle K.
Location data from phones in Fuye’s possession reportedly placed him two miles away from the Circle K about 14 minutes before the armed robbery, and a search warrant of Fuye’s residence reportedly produced a Ruger 10-22 rifle with a red bandanna, tied in the same way as the one shown in the Circle K video.
Post Miranda, Fuye declined to answer questions about the armed robbery.
On top of the charges associated with the burglary, Fuye has been charged with three counts of armed robbery (the business is the third victim), two counts of kidnapping to facilitate the commission of a felony, three counts of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, and displaying a weapon during the commission of a felony. He has a juvenile conviction from 2022 and three adult felony convictions (two violent); he has served one state prison sentence and was released in December 2025. He is already being held without bail in the burglary case, and Judge Meshon Rawls ordered him held without bail in the armed robbery case, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.
The investigation into the other suspect is ongoing.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.