PANAMA CITY — A man suspected of committing multiple burglaries in Gainesville last week was arrested Wednesday in Bay County following an investigation into cases here and across North Florida, the Gainesville Police Department reported.
Dwayne Bruce Officer, 43, will face 20 burglary charges from GPD, whose investigators are working with other law enforcement agencies regarding burglaries elsewhere, GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said in a press release.
Officer is accused of burglaries at Bosshardt Realty, LAE Beauty Tanning & Medispa, offices of doctors and attorneys, and many others. Several of the burglaries occurred at the Bristol Park office complex on Northwest 43rd Street near 53rd Avenue.
In the cases in Gainesville and elsewhere, authorities said the culprit rode a bicycle and pried open doors and windows to get inside small businesses.
Tobias said that on the night following the Gainesville spree, GPD Sgt. Courtnay Roberts Jr. saw Officer on a bike on Northwest 13th Street and believed he looked out of place. Roberts stopped him and got information from Officer, but let him go because investigators had not yet linked Officer to the burglaries.
Police later got surveillance video that identified Officer as the likely suspect, Tobias said. Officer had already returned to his home in Panama City but GPD contacted the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, which kept an eye on him.
Meanwhile law enforcement in Tallahassee, Pensacola, Neptune Beach, Clearwater and other counties and cities identified Officer as a suspect in their burglary cases.
GPD investigators went to Panama City Wednesday with an arrest warrant for Officer while the Bay County Sheriff’s Office had a search warrant, Tobias said. Evidence from the burglaries was found along with four stolen guns, he added.
Officer was set to be booked into the Bay County Jail Wednesday evening.