Police Identify Assailant Now Sought In Central Park Robberies
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police have identified a new suspect for whom they are now searching in a string of robberies in Central Park.
A man and four teenage boys who were previously arrested in the robberies have been released without charges.
Officers were called for a robbery on the East Drive near 73rd Street in Central Park around 7:30 p.m. Thursday. A man had been robbed of his iPhone and punched, police said.
Police believe the assailants in the Thursday night robbery were also behind a another attack on the West Drive at 95th Street in Central Park at 11:15 p.m. Monday, in which a 33-year-old man was robbed of his credit cards and phone at gunpoint.
They are also suspected in a robbery at 201 E. 89th St. on the Upper East Side, in which a 29-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman were robbed by four or five suspects of a cellphone and purse at gunpoint. The suspects used one of the victims' credit cards at a nearby White Castle, police said.
They are further suspected in a robbery at 11:49 p.m. Monday at the Central Park reservoir at 91st Street, in which two women, ages 26 and 45, were robbed of their purses at gunpoint, police said.
Police have identified one of the suspects for whom they are now searching as Blake Carrington, 20.
Police also released surveillance photos and a surveillance video showing five suspects, and a second photo showing three.
Police on Thursday had arrested four males – ages 20, 17, 15, and 14 – after the Central Park robbery that evening. But on Friday, those suspects' arrests were voided and they were released from custody.
