A Jamaica Hills smoke shop was robbed at gunpoint on the morning of Friday, Dec. 8 and police from the 103rd Precinct are looking for a suspect who was last seen carrying a blue tote bag full of stolen merchandise.
The gunman entered Sammy’s smoke shop located at 170-01 Jamaica Ave. just before 10 a.m. and pulled out a black handgun and pointed it at a worker who was behind the counter and demanded cigarettes and cash. When the store employee was slow to comply, the suspect was seen on surveillance video leaping over the counter where he helped himself, filling the tote bag with approximately $1,360 worth of cigarettes, $808 in marijuana produce and an undetermined amount of cash, police said.
The gunman was last seen walking northbound on 171st Street towards 90th Avenue and there were no injuries reported as a result of the armed heist.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect on Wednesday and described him as having a dark complexion, approximately 18 to 25 years of age with a thin build, around 5-feet-8 inches tall. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants, a ring on his right-hand index finger and a black ski mask.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.
There has been a slight decline in the number of robberies in the 103rd Precinct this year. Through Dec. 10, 360 robberies have been reported this year, 11 fewer than the 371 reported at the same point last year, according to the most recent CompStat report.
