Police sketches of two suspects.
Police are looking for three men who they say first approached their victim while on the D train at Columbus Circle before two of them followed him to Brooklyn and robbed him. The robbers told the man they were undercover cops, police say.
The police description is below. A surveillance video of suspects in the crime is below.
It was reported to police that on Monday, September 10, 2018 at approximately 1330 hours, aboard the southbound ‘D’ train in the vicinity of Columbus Circle and West 58 Street, a 22-year-old male was approached by three adult males who asked him to buy drugs from them. Upon the male declining their offer, one of the individuals reached into the male victim’s bag and attempted to remove money. The male resisted and the three males continued to engage the victim in conversation without any physical confrontation at this point. All parties then disembarked the train at 36 Street, within the confines of the 72 Precinct. Two of the individuals continued to follow the victim and forced him into an alleyway on 35 Street, between 4 and 5 Avenue. At this location, the males identified themselves as undercover police officers, and one male displayed a knife while the other male punched the victim and did remove $1,217 cash from the victim’s bag. The males then fled the location on foot in an unknown direction. The victim refused medical attention at the scene.
The individuals are described as follows:
- Male Hispanic, mid 20’s, approximately 5’10” tall, medium build, wearing tan cargo pants, a grey sweatshirt and white Adidas sneakers.
- Male Black, mid 20’s, approximately 6’1″ tall, medium build, wearing a black hoodie, navy blue jeans and blue Nike sneakers. This individual has afro-style hair and distinct scars on his face; One scar is from the right eyebrow to the nose, from the middle forehead to the nose and a small circular scar on the left cheek.
- Male Black, mid 20’s, approximately 5’10” tall, medium build, wearing a light grey sweater and blue capri-style jeans. He has a tattoo on his chest and bicep.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident 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 WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
All calls are kept strictly confidential.
This is terrible to hear, I’m sorry for the victim. But its a strange day that I even have $40 on me. I almost never use cash. How did these guys happen to find someone walking around with $1,200?!? Is it normal that people carry so much cash?
Reading between the lines here a little but this was probably drug related and they all knew each other.
You think it was an accident that this guy had that much cash on him?? and that they knew that. And they followed him to another borough?
Also, why ID yourself as police unless you are trying to intimidate someone who is breaking the law?
Don’t you guys watch Better Call Saul??:)
If they all knew each other, why would they ID themselves as police? Wouldn’t they just say hi and then rob him?
Good question but that’s not what I meant by “knowing” each other. I can see how my phrasing was unclear here.
I meant that the assailants knew who the guy was and that he was targeted. I don’t think this was a random attack.
Just my uneducated opinion. I have seen years of Law & Order though.:)