RALEIGH — Police have arrested and charged a man they think is responsible for a series of kidnappings and ATM robberies last month in and around North Raleigh.

Walter Kevin Johnson, 28, of 6124 Braidwood Ct., Raleigh, faces 23 separate charges and the investigation is still ongoing, according to Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.

Johnson was apprehended during a traffic stop at 1:15 p.m. Friday when he was stopped while driving a sedan on Glenwood Avenue, west of downtown Raleigh, Sughrue said.

Information received as a result of media coverage of the surveillance photos of Johnson released on Oct. 9 by the Raleigh Police Department and the Wake County Sheriff's Office led to the identification of the suspect, Sughrue said.

Raleigh police detectives and Wake sheriff’s deputies first began comparing notes when they noticed a pattern that emerged during a series of kidnappings and robberies that began Sept. 22 and ended Sept. 27.

In four of the cases, the victims were outside their homes when they were approached by an armed man, who forced them to drive to a nearby ATM where he robbed them. In the fifth case, a woman resisted and the man left empty handed.

The robberies and abductions were all carried out after dark by a man the victims described as armed with a handgun. In several of the incidents, the man approached women who were standing near vehicles in their driveways and forced them to drive to an ATM in their own vehicles and withdraw cash before driving them back home. In two cases, the man later abandoned the victims’ vehicles in the neighborhood where they live.

In three of the robberies, the bandit’s face was obscured by a black motorcycle helmet with a full-face shield or an orange and yellow zip-up jacket.

In the final case, an attempted robbery outside a home in the 4900 block of Wynneford Way, the gunman wore a 3-D mask that he removed as he was leaving, officers reported.

Sheriff’s deputies who investigated the incident at Wynneford Way were able to lift fingerprints from inside the home where the man forced the woman upstairs and rifled through a jewelry box in a bedroom, authorities reported.

The cases occurred in North Raleigh or unincorporated areas just outside the city:

• Sept. 22 in the 4800 block of Pleasant Valley Road.

• Sept. 22 in the 4300 block of Furman Hall.

• Sept. 24 in the 1000 block of Collins Drive.

• Sept. 25 in the 1400 block of Hopson Downs Court.

• Sept. 26 in the 5000 block of Stoneridge Drive.

• Sept. 27 in the 4900 block of Wynneford Way.

• Oct. 4 in the 2400 block of Chelmsford Drive.

• Oct. 8 in the 6200 block of Ridgefield Street.

Johnson is charged with:

• nine counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon;

• one count of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon;

• three counts of first degree kidnapping;

• three counts of second degree kidnapping;

• one count of first degree burglary;

• one count of possession of stolen property;

• one count of larceny of a firearm;

• two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon;

• one count of extortion; and,

• one count of larceny of a motor vehicle.

McDonald: 919-829-4533