Bullard Man’s Arrest May Solve Numerous Armed Robberies

EAST TEXAS — A Bullard man has been charged with robbing the Home Depot in Longview at gunpoint and authorities say he could be connected to a similar heist in Tyler. According to the Longview News-Journal and KETK, Santiago Galvan Jr., 19, of Bullard, was held Friday on $95,000 bond after Longview police said he displayed what turned out to be a fake handgun to a Home Depot employee Oct. 6 before leaving the store with a shopping cart full of tools. Authorities at the Cherokee County Jail confirmed that Galvan was arrested Oct. 12 by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and was charged with the Gregg County aggravated robbery as well as newer charges in Cherokee County of obstruction/retaliation and possession of marijuana.

On Oct. 6, a Longview Home Depot employee told police that as she was operating a cash register in the garden department exit, a man approached her register with a cart containing power tools, and as she tried to total up the purchase, the man displayed a handgun, verbally threatened her and left the store with the unpaid items, according to a warrant signed by County Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge Vincent Dulweber. Witnesses gave police the man’s description and license plate number.