2023-10-23 1

#location/store/Family-Dollar #event/plea/guilty #offense/federal/robbery #people/B/Bursie/Shane-Ray

Officials: Amarillo man pleads guilty to ‘violent’ Family Dollar robbery

Excerpt

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced an Amarillo man pleaded guilty Monday to robbing a Family Dollar store in October 2022.

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced an Amarillo man pleaded guilty Monday to robbing a Family Dollar store in October 2022.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton says 36-year-old Shane Ray Bursie pleaded guilty to affecting commerce by robbery and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Officials say Bursie was identified as a primary suspect after the FBI and Amarillo Police Department started investigating a string of armed robberies in Amarillo in August 2021.

Officials say on Oct. 23, 2022, Bursie was armed with a revolver and robbed an Amarillo Family Dollar store. He approached the store clerk, grabbed her and forced her behind the counter with another employee.

Officials say he pointed the gun at the employees and demanded they open the safe.

While the register was being opened, a customer ran out the front door. Bursie shot at the customer, but missed and struck the glass door, according to officials.

Bursie grabbed about $1,349 in cash from the register and threw the register off the counter.

Officials say before running out the front door, Bursie told one of the employees he would be back to shoot them.

Bursie now faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the robbery count and 10 years to life on the firearm count. His sentencing will come at a later date.

The case was brought under the Project Safe Neighborhood Initiative, a program that surges federal and local law enforcement resources to communities’ most violent neighborhoods in order to root out offenders and build positive relationships with victims and witnesses.