Selma Police arrested 27-year-old Eric Bernard Robinson Jr. — also referred to as the Spiderman bandit — Friday, June 7 in connection with a robbery at Sav-A-Lot on Highland Avenue.

According to authorities, a witness reported that while sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot in front of Sav-A-Lot, he noticed a black male dressed in brown sweat pants and a black shirt approaching the entrance to the store in his rear view mirror.

The suspect pulled a Spiderman mask down to cover his face and then entered the store with a handgun in his right hand. Police said, while inside the store, the suspect went to the register and demanded the cashier open the register. Once the suspect had received an unspecified amount of money, he quickly left the store.

Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley said that when Robinson left, he ran right into detectives from the Selma Police Department and officers with the Gulf Coast Region Fugitive Task Force who were already in the area looking for other wanted fugitives involved in other cases.

“Our detective unit was working along with our [U.S.] Marshal fugitive task force and this guy ran directly into them and we were able to surround him in the area,” Riley said. “We caught him totally by surprise.”

Riley said Robinson had changed clothes and was wearing blue gym shorts, a white T-shirt and carrying a handgun in the 1800 Block of Martin Luther King Street, when he was apprehended.

“It worked out so perfectly for us,” Riley said. “He ran right into a task force where we were already looking for fugitives that were wanted.”

The police department said once Robinson was detained, officers searched the area and bound the clothes described in the robbery as well as the Spiderman mask.

“We called him the ‘Spiderman bandit,’” Riley said, pointing out the irony that in comic books Spiderman was the good guy.

“They saw somebody in a Spiderman mask go into a store and rob the place; they were like, ‘Hey, what’s going on with this guy,” Riley said. “We’re thankful for witnesses and that people in the area called us and gave us direction to where the individual was.”

Robinson was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of receiving stolen property third. He is currently being held in the Dallas County Jail under a consolidated $1 million bond.

Police said Robinson is also a suspect in the June 3 robbery of the ABC Store off of Highland Avenue, in which the offender used a Spiderman mask during the robbery.

Officers recovered a .45 caliber Taurus handgun from Robinson at the time of his arrest.