FARGO, N.D. — A 66-year-old man with a long criminal history of bank robberies has been arrested just hours after a Fargo bank was robbed Friday, August 2.
Jay Douglas Barker was booked into Cass County Jail at 6 p.m. on a charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon, jail staff confirmed.
Though Fargo police would not initially confirm that Barker was the suspect in the robbery of Wells Fargo at 406 Main Avenue, a law enforcement source later told The Forum that Barker is connected to the case, which is now being handled by the FBI.
Barker is a repeat offender, with two previous federal bank robbery convictions. His most recent arrest comes just months after his release from prison for a 2017 armed robbery in Rolette County, where he held a gun to a credit union employee’s back and threatened to kill multiple staff members if they triggered alarms.
According to court records, Barker stole over $40,000 in that robbery after losing money at a casino. He admitted using a BB gun, disguising himself with one of his mother’s wigs, and committing the robbery because he was fed up with financial hardship.
Barker had previously served 17 years for a 1999 bank robbery in Idaho, and briefly escaped custody during his 2017 case by locking a jailer in a room and scaling a wall, though he was recaptured within eight hours.
At the time of Friday’s arrest, Barker was still under federal supervised release, part of his five-year probation sentence from 2018.
Officials have not disclosed the amount of money stolen in the Fargo incident, and the investigation remains ongoing.
