By Karen Zautyk
KEARNY —
One suspect was apprehended and two were being hunted by police following an armed robbery at the Quick Chek on Kearny Ave. last week.
“An intense follow-up investigation is underway, and we have substantial leads to
the identity of the cohorts,“ Kearny Police Chief John Dowie told The Observer.
At 12:45 a.m. Thursday, Officers Rich Pawlowski and Pat Walsh were on patrol when they noticed a couple arguing outside the convenience store. When the cops stopped their squad car, the woman ran over and told them there was a suspicious group inside. (Dowie said the argument apparently was about whether or not to report this, with the woman wanting to call police and her male companion preferring to just leave.)
Through the window, the officers could see a man atop the store counter. After advising headquarters that there was a probable robbery in progress and requesting back-up, they drew their weapons and took cover positions to watch the door, Dowie said.
Before the additional units could arrive, three males exited the store. The cops ordered them to the ground, but the suspects took flight, running east on Bergen Ave. Two broke off and turned north on Chestnut St., while the third headed to Devon and ran south.
While Pawlowski and Walsh were engaged in the foot pursuit, other KPD units set up a containment perimeter. Officers Tom Sumowski and Tom Floyd spotted the pair who were on Chestnut and began a chase, but the suspects “went to ground” in the backyards and managed to elude the officers. Later, the Hudson County K-9 unit joined the search, but the two culprits had escaped.
Meanwhile, Walsh encountered a pedestrian, not one of the suspects, who told the officer that a running man had stopped him and asked to use his cell phone, “and the guy let him,” said Dowie.
Det. Sgt. John View and Det. Ray Lopez had joined the search, and at Chestnut and Boyd Sts., Lopez stopped a man who fit the physical description of the phone-borrower. He could not give a legitimate answer as to what he was doing there, but neither was he wearing the black hat, black hoodie and black sneakers that all three suspects had worn, the chief noted.
But at the same time, Dowie said, Officers Glenn Reed and Jay Balogh, who were also searching the area, found the clothing in question discarded on the ground. And, in a garbage can nearby, Lopez found a handgun.
The quick-change artist, an 18-year-old from Newark, was arrested on robbery, conspiracy and weapons charges and eluding police.
The search for his companions is continuing.
Dowie commended all the responding officers for securing the area and finding the evidence. “That was key,” he noted.
Dowie added: “This was a very good job on the part of all the officers involved, especially the first two responding officers, who came upon a crime in progress, who didn’t overreact, but took a good position and displayed a lot of restraint.”
This, the chief noted, “was a three-on-two confrontation.” He also commended Pawlowski and Walsh “for having the courage to engage in the foot pursuit of the suspects, all of whom were possibly armed.”
Dowie said no one in the store was hurt during the holdup. An undetermined amount of cash was removed from the registers.
