Central Queens Robbery Suspect Threatens to Bomb Subway, Light Bank On Fire

Surveillance images of a suspected robber who pilfered businesses in Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside. Photo courtesy of the NYPD.

By Jonathan Sperling

A brazen robber is making the rounds in Queens, striking at three businesses in three different neighborhoods in less than a week, according to the NYPD.

The unidentified suspect’s spree began on Friday, when he entered a Western Union bank on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside at around 7:45 p.m. and poured an unknown substance on the counter of the security window.

While holding a lighter to the liquid, he told an employee he would set the place on fire and demanded money. When the employee walked away, the suspect poured the liquid on the door next to the security window and then fled westbound on Roosevelt Avenue, cops say.

On Monday, the suspect struck again, this time at a MetroPCS cellphone store on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. There, he pulled a knife on one of the store’s employees and demanded cash, before removing $210 from the register and $200 from the victim's purse. The victim was uninjured and the suspect fled westbound on 37th Avenue.

Later in the same day, the suspect hit a Subway restaurant on 91st Place in Elmhurst, where he passed a note to an employee stating that he had a bomb and a gun. The employee complied with the suspects demands for cash, handing him $215 before the suspect fled eastbound on Corona Avenue.

The alleged perp was captured on surveillance video and is described by cops as being a Hispanic man, 5'1" to 5'4" tall; last seen wearing a black and red baseball cap, a black hooded sweater with a white stripe on its left arm, a blue vest, black pants and brown boots.