Two men on parole committed six robberies at gunpoint in just a few hours this morning in four of New York City’s five boroughs, and when they were arrested one of them boasted that he would be out in no time thanks to controversial state penal reform laws.
“I will be out on bail in 24 hours,” one of them said when he was arrested, according to police and a video of the raid released by Fox News. Both suspects were arrested when they collided in the Bronx after a series of muggings in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. No one was injured in the robberies or in the collision.
The two unidentified men, ages 24 and 34, were already on probation and had been arrested just two weeks earlier on drug charges. This morning they drove around in a white Toyota Sienna minivan and stole personal property and/or money from their victims, the New York police said.
“I will be out on bail in 24 hours,” one of them said on camera as he was led to an unmarked police car. “I’m going out on bail.”
The robbers began their spree just before 1 am on Alstyne Avenue near 104th Street in Corona, Queens, where they stole a necklace from the first victim, police said.
Minutes later, they drove to the next crime scene: Queens Boulevard near 65th Street in Sunnyside, where a wallet with an unspecified amount of cash and a cellphone were stolen, authorities said.
They moved to Brooklyn about 40 minutes later, where an unspecified amount of cash was robbed from someone at North 11th Street and Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg. They returned to Queens just 15 minutes later, stealing credit cards and cash during their next holdup at 72nd Street and Broadway in Jackson Heights, authorities said.
They also took action in Manhattan, where the first robbery was committed around 2:40 a.m., robbing a food truck worker parked outside the New York University (NYU) Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on Washington Square South, near from LaGuardia Place.
They then drove to the north end of town, where they committed their latest robbery on Seaman Avenue near West 204th Street in Inwood, at around 3:10 am There, they took a person’s purse.
The streak came to an end when they crashed their Toyota at Cedar Avenue and West 179th Street in University Heights in The Bronx, where they were discovered by NYPD Aviation around 4 am The youngest of them tried to flee but was apprehended.
Charges against both suspects were pending and they were not immediately identified. One of them has 10 previous arrests and the other nine, he explained. New York Post.
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