Police from the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica are looking for an alleged robber who targeted youngsters in Jamaica Hills last month.
The one-man robbery spree began just before noon on Sunday, March 2, when the suspect approached a 16-year-old boy near 90th Avenue and 169th Street and snatched the kid’s cell phone before running off in an unknown direction, police said.
A few weeks later, the perpetrator struck again in the same neighborhood just two blocks away from the first robbery. This time, he allegedly forcibly removed a cell phone from a 12-year-old girl in front of an apartment building at 88-24 Merrick Blvd. just before 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, before taking off. The youngsters were not injured during their encounters.
The suspect struck again at the scene of his first robbery when he approached a 23-year-old woman back at 90th Avenue and 169th Street. He grabbed her cell phone at around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8, and ran off in an unknown direction.
A day later, he allegedly robbed a 33-year-old woman a mile south in St. Albans at around 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9. The victim was standing in front of a home at 172-13 107th Avenue near Detective Keith L. Williams Park, snatched her cell phone, and ran off. The women he robbed this month were not injured.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect on Thursday, describing him as having a dark complexion in his late teens or early 20s. He was last seen wearing a green hooded jacket, a black sweatshirt, white sweatpants, white sneakers, and a blue knit cap.
A reward of up to $3,500 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.
Anyone with information regarding these robberies is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through April 13, the 103rd Precinct has reported 76 robberies so far this year, eight fewer than the 84 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 9.5%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
