Cops caught a trio of alleged burglars who were packing heat while attempting to enter a home in South Ozone Park on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
According to police, the trouble began at about 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 28, when plainclothes members of the 106th Precinct‘s Anti-Crime Unit responded to a 911 call of a reported burglary at a home in the vicinity of the Van Wyck Expressway and 105th Avenue.
When they arrived, the officers interviewed the complainant, who provided them with a description of the perpetrators and the direction in which they were headed. The officers transmitted that information via radio to other officers in the area and began a search.
Moments later, law enforcement sources said, responding uniformed officers spotted two men and a female fitting the description of the suspects in the burglary attempt walking westbound on 107th Avenue. When the officers attempted to stop them, one of the men — Jamel Lewis, 39, of 135th Street in South Ozone Park — was observed allegedly dropping a gun to the ground.
The uniformed officers then exited the car and approached the three suspects. The other man in the trio, identified as Shawn Baker, 33, of Richmond, VA, was observed reaching into his waistband, while the female with him — Tiffany Rutledge, 34, also of Richmond, VA — dropped her purse.
Cops were able to recover from Baker’s waistband a loaded Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver; they also found a loaded .22-caliber revolver in Rutledge’s purse. Police also recovered the gun Lewis allegedly dropped, a 9mm Hi-Point handgun.
Baker, Lewis and Rutledge were taken into custody without incident. After learning that they exited a Lincoln Navigator parked nearby, police approached the SUV and observed ammunition in plain sight.
After obtaining a warrant, officers searched the SUV and recovered 200 rounds of various ammunition and a .40-caliber Hi-Point handgun.
Police charged the three suspects with various counts of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal trespass; Baker was additionally charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance.
