More than a month after an unidentified individual robbed an island cannabis store, the King County Sheriff’s office announced late last week that an arrest has been made.

The office’s spokesman, Ryan Abbott, told The Beachcomber that a 32-year-old man, known to deputies, made a statement to them regarding an incident on Feb. 8 in which a hooded individual pointed a gun at an employee at the Euphorium, before firing some shots into the air before taking off with the cash register. The incident was captured on a security camera.

Almost a week ago, the young man was booked into King County Jail on investigation of robbery in the first degree. Charges were expected to be filed on March 16, but The Beachcomber did not have more details by press time.

The sheriff’s spokesman explained why the investigation did not conclude quickly.

“We had to determine who it was first and just because there’s a lot of rumors on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s actually true,” Abbott said. “It always takes a long time to investigate robberies. We finally had enough to interview him, but still, we weren’t at a point where we could arrest him until after we interviewed him.”

The sheriff’s office spokesman said his office was glad that they were able to identify a suspect and “hopefully get some closure for the owner and the worker that was there that had to deal with the individual.”

“Now, we’ll wait for it to take its course in the court system,” Abbott said. “For now, we’re able to get the suspect behind bars, which is what our goal is, so this doesn’t happen again — at least not with this suspect.”

Euphorium manager Dexter Casper Wilks posted on Facebook a message about how happy he was to see the case come to a conclusion.

“The officer … worked with me for the last 24 hours to seal the deal, and the deed has been done,” he wrote. “I have so much more to say about this, but that is all for now.”

Asked for comment in The Beachcomber, Wilks was at a loss for words and took a few moments to think about what he wanted to say.

“I’m just happy this whole ordeal has been put to rest for now,” he said. “I always have a heightened sense of security and care for my staff and we just want to give good service.”