A masked man burst into a Fall River convenience store Sunday night wearing a Ghostface mask straight out of the movie Scream, threatened the clerk with what appeared to be a firearm, and ran off with about $1,500 in cash. Less than a day later, police say they had their suspect in handcuffs.
Tajuan Holloman, 55, of Fall River, was arrested and charged with armed and masked robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon, according to turnto10.com. Officers responded to Discount Food Mart at 1501 Pleasant Street at approximately 9:30 p.m. Sunday after a clerk reported being robbed, as detailed by Fall River Reporter. The store sits near the corner of Pleasant and Boutwell streets, per NBC Boston.
Accounts differ slightly on the mask's exact name — one report calls it a “Scream Got Face” mask, while another describes it as a “Scream Ghost Face” mask — but both agree the suspect fled with roughly $1,500 after threatening the clerk with what appeared to be a firearm.
Surveillance Footage Cracks the Case
Detectives from the department's Major Crimes Division used surveillance footage and interviews to identify a distinctive vehicle and a person of interest, which led investigators to Holloman. That same footage later helped investigators recover physical evidence: the mask itself and what turned out to be a tire iron wrapped in a white sock, according to the same account from Fall River Reporter.
Fall River Police Chief J.T. Hoar commended the department for making an arrest within 24 hours of the incident. The rapid turnaround relied on tying the suspect to a specific vehicle spotted on camera, the report notes.
A Familiar Face to Police Elsewhere
Holloman was previously arrested in Colebrook, New Hampshire, in May, on charges of theft and marijuana possession. According to the Fall River Reporter's account, the Colebrook Police Department arrested him at the time wearing the very same Adidas sweatshirt he allegedly had on during Sunday night's robbery in Fall River.
Following his arrest, Holloman was ordered to undergo an examination for competency to stand trial, per the same account.
Not the Only Ghostface Case in the State
Holloman's arrest echoes a separate case from Milford, Massachusetts, where police arrested a suspect accused of robbing a store while wearing a Ghostface mask after a store manager recognized the suspect's shoes. In that case, reported by CBS Boston in December, officers recovered the mask along with a knife, a BB gun and cigarettes taken from the store. There's no indication the two incidents are connected, and the evidence does not point to a broader trend of Ghostface-mask robberies beyond these individual cases.
