The FBI says in court documents that a Fauquier County inmate, who allegedly stabbed a sheriff’s deputy in the face with a shank and shot another in the leg, stole more than $33,000 in two armed robberies.
George Golder Phillips II was waiting for a hearing on Dec. 30 regarding armed robbery charges related to a Jan. 26 robbery of a Warrenton bank when he stabbed the deputy with a shank, authorities said. He then allegedly pulled a gun from a deputy’s side and used it to shoot another deputy in the leg. Both deputies are recovering from their wounds.
According to an FBI agent’s sworn statement filed in Alexandria’s federal court last week, Phillips committed the first armed robbery on July 7, 2008, when he knocked off a Safeway store in Bristow.
The statement says Phillips was carrying a sawed-off shotgun, and wearing a ski mask and white gloves when he approached the grocery store’s front door. A group of employees were outside on break and he ordered them, and others he found inside, to get behind the customer care counter. Phillips then ordered one employee to open the safe and stuff $4,000 into a blue Safeway bag.
Phillips, the statement said, took off with the money on foot.
Authorities say he didn’t crop up again until the Jan. 26 robbery of the Fauquier Bank in Warrenton. The FBI agent’s statement says Phillips was wearing the same gear he wore in the Safeway robbery, but had exchanged the shotgun for a rifle. He approached the teller counter with the rifle, demanded cash and the tellers complied, handing him $29,244.
Court documents say Phillips then ran out into a field behind the bank, where a pickup truck was waiting for him. As he ran, he turned around to see a witness watching him. He pointed the rifle at the witness, who then darted back inside. Phillips littered $8,486 on the ground as he made his dash to the getaway vehicle.
Phillips was initially arrested by Fauquier County authorities on unrelated charges, the statement said. But he admitted to the two armed when questioned by the Fauquier County detectives.
