Man, Possibly Armed, Wanted In String of Burglaries and Harassments In Crown Heights
by CrownHeights.info
It was around 5:30pm Tuesday when a tall man, approximately 18 years old, entered Basil Restaurant in Crown Heights to use the restroom. By 2:00am, he will already be wanted for breaking into at least two Jewish stores on Kingston Ave and brandishing a gun.
The still unidentified man began his recorded night of crime soon after he visited Basil Tuesday evening, with Crown Heights Shormim receiving their first call around 10:00pm.
“We got a call to Basil Restaurant around 10:00pm for a man brandishing a gun,” a Shomrim volunteer told CrownHeights.info. “Numerous people noticed the man and his weapon, a patron at Basil, the manager of the restaurant, as well as the driver of an FDNY Firetruck that was parked right in front of Basil.”
According to a patron at the restaurant, the man had followed him into the establishment and harassed him before leaving. Shomrim and the police were called, arriving within minutes to find that the gun-brandishing man had seemingly already made his way out of Crown Heights. But he would be back soon after.
At 12:10am, Railroad Pizza at 227 Kingston Ave was broken into by the same man, who smashed the glass of the front door and forced his way inside. Some cash was stolen.
The night of crime wasn’t over, and by 1:00am he had finished up his second break-in, forcing his way into a Kingston Ave Flower Shop.
At 1:10am the man chose his next target, Raskin’s Fruit store. His attempt to force his way inside was disrupted though as a police car pulled up, apparently responding to the break-in at the flower store. Nearly caught, the man turned and ran away, ending his crime spree for the night.
As a potentially armed and dangerous burglar, the incidents were taken seriously by the detectives of the NYPD, who with the help of Shomrim began an immediate investigation.
