NYPD Seeks Suspects In Connection With String Of Armed Robberies Across NYC
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police on Saturday linked a pattern of eight robberies targeting businesses in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn.
As CBS2's Ilana Gold reported, the robberies were all committed at gunpoint, and a gun was fired in one of the incidents, police said.
The robberies happened at the following times and locations:
• Around 4 p.m. Thursday, April 16, two masked men walked into the MBA Wireless Store at 1171 Second Ave. in the Upper East Side. One took out a black handgun and demanded money from the store's register, and an employee handed over about $250, police said.
• Around 7:45 p.m. the same day, the suspects – again wearing masks – walked into Cure Pharmacy at 1025A Third Ave. in Midtown East -- just a block from Bloomingdale's. One suspect walked up to the cash register while the other went to the back of the store where prescription drugs are kept and demanded all the "oxy," or oxycodone, police said.
As an employee tried to give the suspect the drugs, he became agitated and asked, "Do you think I'm playing?" before firing his gun into the rear wall of the store, police said. He was given a quantity of oxycodone pills in a white paper bag, police said.
Meanwhile, the other suspect ordered the employees to lie on the ground, police said. The suspects also made off with about $300, police said.
"They displayed a gun and told me to give them the money," MBA Wireless store employee Guillermo DeJesus told CBS2's Sonia Rincon.
DeJesus, who asked that CBS2 not show his face, said he followed their instructions and got on the ground.
"I mean, I was pretty scared," he said.
It was the last thing he expected to happen here in the middle of the day.
"The fact that they were so brazen to just do that at 4 in the afternoon," he said.
NYPD Seeks Suspects In Connection With String Of Armed Robberies Across NYC
The suspects in the first two incidents were described as black males in their 30s, both standing about 6 feet tall. One was wearing gray sweat pants and a gray sweat shirt with the letters "RL" in red and "67" on the lower back pocket, along with black sneakers. The other was wearing a gray sweat shirt with a hood and sweat pants, a bright yellow-green construction-type vest, and pink and black gym shoes, police said.
Police have released surveillance photos taken after the MBA Wireless store incident.
Police later connected additional incidents to the pattern.
• Around 2:27 p.m. Thursday, April 4, three suspects walked into the Fordham Family Pharmacy at 202 W. Fordham Rd. in the University Heights section of the Bronx, and demanded property at gunpoint, police said. They made off with oxycodone and Percocet tablets, lottery tickets, and $400 cash, police said.
• Around 8:23 p.m. April 14, two suspects walked into Cohen's Fashion Optical at 278 Seventh Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. They took out guns, demanded money from a 29-year-old man working there, and took $1,500 along with 15 pairs of designer brand eyeglass frames worth about $600, police said.
• Around 8:45 p.m. the same day, two suspects entered Windsor Wine Merchants Liquor Store, at 210 Prospect Park West in Park Slope, Brooklyn. They displayed guns and demanded money from a 36-year-old employee, making off with $1,450 from the register, said.
• Around 2:50 p.m. Friday, April 24, the suspects walked into a drugstore at 1013 Broadway in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They demanded money from a 32-year-old employee and unsuccessfully tried to open a safe, but made off with drug and $100 from the register, police said.
• Around 6:33 p.m. the same day, the suspects entered East 87 Wine Traders at 1693 Second Ave. on the Upper East Side, and demanded money from a 26-year-old employee at gunpoint. They took $549 from the register and fled north on Second Avenue, police said.
"They said it calmly, like it was something that they have done before," said East 87 Wine Traders clerk Ben Jacobs. "They seemed to know what they were doing."
Jacobs was troubled by the pattern.
"I'm glad that it went so smoothly, I guess, here. But I just -- no amount of money is worth getting shot over," he said.
Police have released a photo from the Second Avenue wine shop incident.
• Finally, around 4:23 p.m. Friday, May 1, the suspects walked into a liquor store at 824 Kings Highway on the cusp of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. They approached a 59-year-old man at gunpoint and told him to go to the register, but they ran off when he fought with them, police said. The victim was treated for bruising and a head injury at Maimonides Medical Center, police said.
The Kings Highway liquor store was closed Saturday.
Police have also released surveillance video from multiple incidents. The video, in sequence, shows the southern Brooklyn liquor store incident, and surveillance video from during and after the Upper East Side wireless store robbery.
"It is alarming to know that people like that are running the streets," added DeJesus. "So I just hope they get caught quickly."
Anyone with information was asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, log onto the Crime Stoppers website, or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and enter TIP577.
