Pellet Gun-Packing Bystander Thwarts Robbery
Who’s safer? The guy with the gun or the guy with the knife?
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ABQjournal: Pellet Gun-Packing Bystander Thwarts Robbery
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/338582news05-19-01.htm
Saturday, May 19, 2001
Pellet Gun-Packing Bystander Thwarts Robbery
By Jeff Jones
Journal Staff Writer
A bystander wielding a pellet gun helped thwart a robbery
early Friday at an Albuquerque sandwich shop, police said. What’s more,
a group of people held the suspect down until officers arrived, police
added.
Thomas “Mr. Brown” Molina, 27, who police allege is a gang
member, is now facing a charge of assault with intent to commit a
violent felony.
Albuquerque Police Department Sgt. Brian McCutcheon said
police “appreciate the help, and a bad guy was taken off the streets.”
However, he added, police would rather not have residents placing their
lives in danger to thwart crime.
The failed robbery attempt happened a few minutes before 2
a.m. at a Subway shop on East Central, McCutcheon said. The shop closes
for the night at 2 a.m.
According to McCutcheon, a man with a pocketknife came into
the shop and demanded that a worker open the cash register and give him
money. The man also vaulted over the counter and threatened to stab the
worker, McCutcheon said.
A witness in the store at the time went outside and told some
friends waiting in a vehicle that the shop was being robbed. One man
happened to have a pellet gun, McCutcheon said, and he came into the
Subway, pointed the pellet gun at the suspect and demanded he drop his
knife.
The suspect complied, McCutcheon said. The suspect then ran to
the back of the shop and tried to leave, but a group of bystanders
tackled him and held him down for police.
Molina remained in the Bernalillo County Detention Center
Friday night; his jail bond has been set at $10,000.
Copyright ? 1997 – 2001 Albuquerque Journal: Albuquerque, New Mexico