Man accused of stealing police rifle arrested at Pentagon City mall

Police said they took Rodriguez-Hernandez into custody without incident and recovered the rifle after he exited the Fashion Centre mall and went into a parking garage in the 1100 block of S. Hayes Street.

Before entering the mall, Rodriguez-Hernandez “discharged a fire extinguisher before he forced entry with a shovel into an off-duty officer’s parked police vehicle and removed a secured rifle and other items,” according to a news release from the Arlington County Police Department.

That officer was not in the vehicle, which was inside a garage on the 700 block of 12th Street South, police said. Police did not name the off-duty officer whose rifle was taken. Allison Shorb, a spokeswoman for Arlington County police, said Rodriguez-Hernandez was located by officers in “just under 10 minutes” after the initial dispatch at 9:06 a.m.