Background: The Walmart Supercenter located on South Bishop Avenue in Rolla, Missouri (Google Maps). Inset: Samantha Feeler (Phelps County Sheriff”s Department).
A dramatic sequence of events unfolded in Missouri as a woman, armed with a pocketknife, allegedly embarked on a crime spree that included a convenience store robbery and an assault in a Walmart parking lot. Authorities have charged 31-year-old Samantha Feeler with multiple felonies, such as attempted robbery, assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and armed criminal action.
The alleged incidents kicked off at around 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon when Feeler entered a Sinclair convenience store on North Bishop Avenue in Rolla, Missouri. A probable cause statement, examined by Law&Crime, reveals that Feeler approached the checkout counter, brandished a pocketknife, and demanded cash from the cashier. “Open the drawer and give me money,” she allegedly commanded, threatening, “Open the drawer or I’m going to kill you.”
In a tense moment, the cashier attempted to activate the panic button concealed beneath the counter but was unable to do so. Feeler then left the store, and shortly afterward, an officer from the Rolla Police Department arrived at the scene to investigate the robbery.
Not long after the convenience store incident, Feeler allegedly continued her spree less than an hour later at a nearby Walmart Supercenter on South Bishop Avenue. According to the probable cause statement, Feeler parked her vehicle in the Walmart parking lot and approached a woman seated in her car, threatening her with the same pocketknife.
This shocking series of events has left the local community on edge as they grapple with the audacity of the midday attacks and the swift response of law enforcement to bring the suspect into custody. The case continues to develop as authorities gather more details about Feeler’s alleged actions and motives during this troubling episode.
Less than an hour later, Feeler is believed to have threatened someone else. This time, she was at the Walmart Supercenter located on South Bishop Avenue in the city, according to the probable cause statement. Feeler parked her car in the parking lot and approached a woman as she was “seated inside her vehicle.”
The woman “rolled her window down, at which time Feeler displayed the same knife used during the robbery at Sinclair and threatened to stab her,” the officer, recalling the scene, wrote. The woman “began screaming for help as Feeler reached through the open window” and grabbed something. The woman continued to scream as she tried to roll the window up.
Feeler reportedly then “returned to her vehicle and later entered Walmart.” At about 4 p.m., the same officer who responded to Sinclair arrived at the superstore.
Officers were focused on the suspect by this time. While Feeler was inside Walmart, she “actively resisted officers.” She was eventually arrested, with authorities noting she was wearing the same clothing that “she was observed wearing during the robbery at Sinclair.”
Feeler was transported to the Phelps County Jail, but, according to the court document, her transgressions had not ended. As her handcuffs were removed, she “attempted to grab a department-issued Taser” from an officer’s vest, and while being fingerprinted, she “fled from the booking area.”
She was subsequently cuffed again and placed into a jail cell, where she remains, per jail records. Her bond was set at $250,000, and she has a bond review hearing scheduled for Jan. 6, 2026.
