Man Charged With Threatening To Stab Bronx Store Employees With Needle
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police in the Bronx have arrested and charged the suspect in a string of robberies whose chief weapon of choice was a hypodermic needle.
Johan Hernandez, 43, of the Bronx, was charged late Thursday with two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery, police said.
Police said the man hit up at least three stores in the Morrisania section of the borough since December, each time stealing items off the shelves, and when confronted, threatening to stab young female employees with a hypodermic needle.
"He's a nut. He's definitely crazy. He needs help, needs to get off the street," said James Fair, of Soundview.
"Shopping is getting more and more dangerous as we go on, because if people are pulling out hypodermic needles, you don't know what's in them. It could be anything from hepatitis C to HIV," said John Ragusa, of Midtown.
In the first incident, police said the man went into a Duane Reade on Southern Boulevard on Dec. 15 and started pulling items off the shelf and putting them in his jacket pocket.
When an employee confronted him, he allegedly threatened to stab her with the needle. He took off with about $140 worth of merchandise, police said.
"That's messed up because nobody knows if the needle has been used before," Janet Guzman, of Mott Haven, said.
"It's pretty crazy because I have small children, and it's crazy that you could walk by somebody and they would have the mentality to do something like that," Roger Wesley, also of Mott Haven, said.
The same thing happened at a Walgreens on Jan. 20 and a Dollar Tree on Jan. 24.
The manager of the Dollar Tree told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck that she confronted the suspect after she saw him stealing candy.
"He was like, 'Oh, I don't have nothing,' and then he took out his needle and he was like, 'Oh, I have AIDS and I'm gonna poke you,'" the manager said. "I ran."
None of the threatened employees were stabbed during the robberies, but that detail doesn't seem to matter much to some people.
"That's like a bank robber who slips a note. Just because he has a note doesn't mean he doesn't have a bomb attached to him," Ragusa said. "It's still the same deadly force. I hope they prosecute with the same force."
Police said a tip led investigators to the suspect Thursday afternoon.
