Surveillance video captured the moment four suspects used a sledgehammer and crowbar to carry out a smash-and-grab robbery at a Yonkers, New York, jewelry store on Thursday, stealing what the store owner estimated was $100,000 in merchandise, police said.
In a release, the Yonkers Police Department (YPD) stated officers responded to the Golden Square Jewelry store in the 100 block of South Broadway at 5:20 p.m. after receiving a report of masked men using a sledgehammer to bust down the store’s front window. An investigation revealed the perpetrators used a crowbar in addition to the sledgehammer to break the window, the YPD said. Officers arrived within minutes, but the group had fled in a dark-colored SUV.
A search for the vehicle ensued, and it was subsequently located in the Park Hill neighborhood, police said. The suspects continued to flee in the vehicle, and officers pursued them before the vehicle crashed “into a residential home retaining wall on Marshall Road just east of Birch Road,” according to the YPD. Four suspects fled the SUV following the crash, two of whom were apprehended minutes later, while the third suspect was taken into custody within the hour.
“A neighborhood perimeter was established in the Park Hill and Tibbetts Park areas as Yonkers Police and Westchester County Police continued to search for the fourth suspect,” the YPD said.
He remains at large, though the YPD noted it had identified him.
Alfred Long, 35, Nykem Alston, 21, and Alexander Wilson, 21, are the three suspects who were apprehended. All men are from the Bronx, and Alston allegedly provided officers with the false name of Tyrese Robinson “in an effort to conceal a bench warrant for his arrest in relation to a New York City attempted murder charge in 2019.”
Only Long and Alston have been charged, as Wilson sustained injuries during the crash and remains in a local trauma center. He will be charged soon, police said. Long and Altston both face counts of first-degree robbery, a class B felony; second-degree grand larceny, a class C felony; and third-degree burglary, a class D felony.
The owner of the Golden Square Jewelry store said the suspects took an estimated $100,000 in gold and jewelry, and the YPD located some of the stolen goods in the SUV, according to the release.
“The Yonkers Police Department offers no quarter to criminals who engage in this blatant, lawless, and violent behavior,” said YPD Commissioner Chris Sapienza. “We will commit every resource to track them down, arrest them, and hold them accountable.”