A man arrested Wednesday on suspicion of five recent business robberies in Columbia was on parole for a similar crime and was working with his girlfriend�s son for nearly two weeks before his capture, according to court records.

Jafari R. Boss, 31, is on parole for convictions of second-degree robbery and second-degree domestic assault stemming from a 2010 Boone County case. He was released from the Missouri Department of Corrections on Sept. 20, 2013, after 3� years in custody. He is being held at the Boone County Jail on a $650,000 cash-only bond.

Boss is accused in five recent robberies: Dec. 3 at Speedy Mart, 1205 Old 63; Dec. 5 at Budget Host Inn, 900 Vandiver Drive; Dec. 5 at Denny�s, 1100 Knipp St.; Dec. 8 at We B Smokin, 2507 Bernadette Drive; and Dec. 13 at China Moon Restaurant, 3890 Range Line St. Victims were restrained in four of the robberies.

Police have relied on witness statements, surveillance footage, a credit card transaction at Party City, 21 Conley Road, the accused robbers� use of taxis as a getaway vehicle and a hospital visit.

At 4 a.m. Dec. 12, police were sent to University Hospital on a report of a gunshot victim. There, the victim, identified as T.H., was with his mother, L. W-H., and her boyfriend, Boss, a probable cause statement said. T.H. had a gunshot wound on his arm and �did not provide a credible story to officers� about how he was shot, the statement said. Columbia police Detective Joseph Jackson, who filed the statement, viewed T.H.�s Facebook page and saw photos of him wearing clothing consistent with one of the robbers in the Speedy Mart robbery, the statement said. The gunshot wound possibly occurred during a home invasion the pair allegedly attempted about 90 minutes before the hospital visit. In that incident, a man fired a shot at two men, one of whom was armed, as they tried to break into his home, a police statement said.

Party City sells the same style of masks the men wore in the robbery, the statement said, and the detective discovered Boss� girlfriend bought a red mask and a blue mask at 5 p.m. Dec. 3 with her credit card. She admitted to the detective Thursday that she �was fearful of Boss and was aware that he was involved in the commission of the robberies.�

After the China Moon robbery, a witness reported seeing two black males run around the corner of a nearby gas station and get into an Economy Cab. Records Jackson reviewed from the cab company showed the call for the cab came from Boss� girlfriend�s phone and that the two men were dropped off at her house in the 2900 block of Northland. A cab driver on Dec. 5, 6 and 8, soon after three of the robberies, told police she recognized one of the riders as Boss, the statement said. In two of the instances, she told police, she dropped them off at the house on Northland, and all three times she picked the pair up in close proximity to the respective robbery that had occurred.

Columbia police said Friday that T.H., a 16-year-old, was arrested at 11:15 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of four counts of first-degree robbery and three counts of kidnapping. His case was referred to the Boone County Juvenile Office.

In total, Boss faces 13 felony charges: five counts each of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action and three counts of kidnapping.

Boss� arrest happened as police were investigating a shots-fired call, spokeswoman Bryana Maupin said Thursday in a news release.

Police were dispatched at 11:03 p.m. to a shots-fired call in the 1500 block of Interstate 70 Drive S.W. and learned a man in a mask brandished a gun and attempted to assault another man. One shot was fired during the altercation, but no one was injured. As police searched for the suspect, Maupin said, detectives from the Street Crimes Unit found and arrested Boss in the 900 block of Bernadette Drive. Police made no arrests connected to the shots-fired call, Maupin said.

This story was first published online on Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 4:03 p.m.