Search warrant details arrest of Grafton robbery suspect

ELYRIA — Multiple witnesses and tipsters in the community who saw a Facebook post helped police identify 29-year-old Kevin Kowalski as the suspect in the Feb. 21 knifepoint robbery of the Dollar General store in Grafton, according to a search warrant unsealed in court this week. Kowalski has been charged with aggravated robbery as a result. He was being held in the Lorain County Jail on $20,000 cash bond, and court records did not list an attorney representing him. In a search warrant affidavit filed in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on Feb. 23 and signed off on by Judge Chris Cook, Grafton police Sgt. Ken Jake sought the court's permission to search Kowalski's Erie Street residence in Grafton for clothing matching the description of that worn by the robber, cash, cellphones and a small silver or stainless steel hardware knife. According to the affidavit, Grafton police were called to the Dollar General at 573 N. Main St. at 11:11 a.m. Feb. 21 for a report that the store had just been robbed at knifepoint. The clerk told police that a white male entered the store, left, then returned and paid for a bag of Original Lays Potato Chips with a $5 bill. When she opened the register to make change, the robber pulled a knife and told her to give him "all the 20s." He then grabbed the cash off the counter, told her not to move and as he walked toward the exit "yelled 'Don't move and don't call the cops.'" The robber left the store to the right and turned toward the back of the building, making off with $189 in cash, according to the affidavit. Video footage from a store camera showed the suspect wearing black and gray clothing with a black neck gaiter-type face mask and gray beanie-style hat, and the clerk told police the knife he pulled was similar to the kind Dollar General sells in its stores. Jake posted images from the video on the department's Facebook page, and on Feb. 22 an employee of a business in the village said the suspect had been inside there wearing the same clothing. Although the witness didn't know Kowalski's name, they identified Kowalski and his girlfriend as regular customers and said that the girlfriend worked at another discount store in the village and drove a white van. Kowalski also had startled the witness while loitering outside their business and was inside around the time of the Dollar General robbery. Grafton police officers recognized the description of the van and knew that it belonged to Kowalski's girlfriend. That same day, just after 7:30 p.m., police received an anonymous phone call from a woman who identified Kowalski as their suspect and said he had been overheard bragging to someone about robbing the Dollar General of $250, according to the affidavit. As a result of the search warrant, police confiscated nine knives from Kowalski's residence along with a cellphone, its charger and a black bag, according to an inventory of items found in the search. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him @daveobrienCT on Twitter.