Weekend Crime Blotter: Teacher Bites Student, Sunday Robbery Spree and More

Weekend Crime Blotter: Teacher Bites Student, Sunday Robbery Spree and More
police line do not cross
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

On Sunday afternoon, January 28, three men went on an armed crime spree in Brooklyn, robbing corner stores at gunpoint across four police precincts, said the NYPD.

First, the suspects hit Ralph Avenue Food Corp. in Crown Heights, at 444 Ralph Avenue and St. Marks Avenue. They entered the store just before 3:00 pm, said police, and one of the suspects pulled a handgun and demanded money from the 16-year old boy at the counter. A second suspect went behind the counter and stole $1,000 from the register and 5 boxes of cigarettes, while the third man stayed by the door as a lookout, said police.

About an hour later, they robbed the Rose Family Grocery at 416 Glenmore Avenue in East New York, pulling a gun on a 43-year old male employee and demanding cash. He gave them $500 and his cell phone, said police.

By 5:40 pm, the trio had made their way to Bed-Stuy, where they robbed the Marcy Express Grocery at 529 Marcy Avenue. Despite pulling a gun on the 34-year old man behind the counter, the suspects were rebuffed, said police. The man refused to open the door behind the counter and told the suspects he was calling the police. They fled.

Thirty minutes later, the men turned up at Cucao Deli, 1872 Bergen Street, on the Crown Heights/Brownsville border along Howard Avenue. Police said they demanded money at gunpoint, making off with $400 cash before fleeing in a silver four-door sedan with a black bumper guard.

Police described the suspects as three black men in their 30s, and they can be seen on surveillance videos below:

FLATBUSH – On Friday, January 26, a man robbed the Boost Mobile store at 1175 Flatbush Avenue, making off with cash and phones, said police.

The robbery took place just before 3:00 pm, when an unidentified man entered the store and pulled a gun on the 35-year old employee alone in the store. The suspect demanded cash and the employee complied, handing over $40, two Samsung Galaxy phones, and his own personal cell phone, said police.

The suspect fled on foot and left the employee unharmed, said police. The employee’s phone was tracked and recovered from a nearby dumpster. The suspect can be seen on surveillance video below (though the timestamp on the video is incorrect, said the NYPD):

CANARSIE – A substitute teacher was arrested on Friday, December 26th after biting a kindergartner at P.S. 66 on East 96th Street, the NY Post reported.

Shavonne Johnson, 37, bit the 5-year old on his left wrist in retaliation for the tot’s repeated bites, according to reports.

Johnson was arrested and charged with second-degree assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child, said police. She was quickly fired after the incident, according to the Department of Education.

“There is no place for this alleged behavior in our schools, and Ms. Johnson was immediately terminated,” Douglas Cohen, a DOE spokesperson, said in a statement.

SHEEPSHEAD BAY – Police are looking for a suspect who broke into a house in the area of East 22nd Street and Avenue T last week.

On Thursday, January 25, a man broke into a burglarized the Sheepshead home around 5:00 pm. Police described the suspect as a white male in his 30s or 40s, last seen wearing a ski hat, sunglasses, black jacket, and blue jeans. He fled in a silver sedan.

While the property the man stole hasn’t been disclosed, surveillance video shows the man bumping his way in through the front door of the home.

Anyone with information in regard to any of these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.