Police say they have arrested man responsible for Target robbery

Police said a man who robbed two women earlier this week is in the Travis County jail.

35-year-old Alex Jackson is charged with felony theft and two counts of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.

The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force located Jackson thanks to some help from the public.

"What ultimately led to our not so much identifying this person but actually putting handcuffs on this person was almost entirely a Crime Stoppers tip," said Sgt. Anthony Bigongiari with the Austin Police Department's Robbery Unit.

Police said Jackson robbed two women at gunpoint in North Austin on Tuesday.

The first robbery happened outside Target off Hwy 183 and Ohlen Road. A woman and her 18-month-old child were in the parking lot when they were approached by a man with a gun.

"It only takes one idiot to do something like this and in a city of almost 1 million people there's going to be that one idiot and you take reasonable precautions, but you still may find yourself in this situation," said Bigongiari.

The robber told the woman he would shoot her and her baby if she didn't give him money. That victim asked FOX 7 not to identify her.

"That was the scariest part. That's when I reached back hoping he would take the cash and not demand more and just leave me alone. And he did. Thank god for that," the victim told FOX 7.

During the incident a witness snapped a picture of the robber on a cellphone.

"That led us to the identification of the suspect within 48 hours of the occurrences," said Bigongiari.

Police said they recognized the man in the picture and started looking for Alex Jackson.

"Nowadays it is much harder to get away with a violent felony then it was five or 10 years ago just because there's people with cameras on their person as well as an abundance of video surveillance systems," said Bigongiari.

Jackson hit another location Tuesday night just a few hours later. Police said Jackson robbed a second woman outside HEB at the Hancock Center.

"It's very fortunate that nobody was hurt. It could have gone the other way especially with the way this guy was behaving. There's no reason to threaten to shoot somebody's child or to point a gun at a pregnant woman that's not resisting you," said Bigongiari.

Jackson is currently at the Travis County jail. His bond is set at $1.25 million.

At this point Jackson has not been linked to any other armed robberies in or around Austin.

Police said they did identify Jackson as the suspect in a theft in Austin. Because of Jackson's previous criminal history that is a felony charge.