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Uncle and Nephew in Custody After Woodside Duane Reade Shooting, Queens Robbery Spree

via Chief Dermot F. Shea on Twitter

Nov. 27, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez

Two men–an uncle and a nephew– have been taken into custody following a series of armed robberies in Queens yesterday that included the shooting of a Woodside Duane Reade employee.

Elgin Brack, 22, and Scott Brack, 50, now face federal charges in the alleged armed robberies of four convenience stores in in Astoria, Woodside and Jamaica over a roughly two-hour period on Nov. 26., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Elgin was separately charged with brandishing and discharging a firearm during the in-store robberies, which included the shooting of a 49-year-old employee at the 60-02 Roosevelt Ave. Duane Reade.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, say Scott, Elgin’s uncle, was behind the wheel of the car that took them to store after store during the spree.

“As alleged, the defendants struck four all-night commercial businesses in Queens in a span of fewer than three hours, including a Duane Reade store in Woodside where an employee was callously shot in the head simply for resisting the robbery,” said United States Attorney Richard Donoghue in a statement.

Dermot F. Shea, NYPD Chief of Detectives, described the two as “violent individuals” at a press conference yesterday.

Shea said the arrests were made using some “good old detective work” including locating and following vehicles. He noted that the case even went out of state, and that one of the two apprehended suspects has had an “interesting year.”

Court records show Elgin was arrested in June and charged with disorderly conduct.

The uncle and nephew duo are in custody following details released yesterday on the string of robberies through several Queens neighborhoods. Their first target was the Woodside Duane Reade, where Elgin tried to force the employee to hand him money from the register just before 3:30 a.m. The employee, however, was shot in the hand and face after shutting the register closed.

The Woodside Duane Reade was the only location where Elgin did not make off with cash, but he did steal more than $1,300 combined from the three other locations, including two Rite Aids and a 7-Eleven.

Shea said the two men targeted these stores during the early morning hours, where it was likely that only one employee would be on staff.

The Woodside Duane Reade employee was the only victim who suffered injuries during the four robberies. He was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital after the shooting, with Shea noting that he has survived the wounds thus far.

Article updated on Nov. 28 at 10:30 a.m.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

27 Comments

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Enrique O.

I hope Duane Reade will help their associate with the medical bills. The cost of getting shot will leave you bankrupt

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Jeff Bezozoes

I hope they spent their time in prison learning Java. When they get out, De Blasio will help them get a job at Amazon.

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Richard Alicea

Great job. It’s a shame that this is what we have to deal with. Employees just trying earn a living. Let’s start a law against wearing hoods while entering establishments. And I hope they start a GoFundMe for this unfortunate Duane Reade employee.

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Member

How about more security in stores like this at night? Don’t open 24 hrs or pay up for security in store at night.

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Anonymous

There was a security guard near the registers at Duane Reade when I went in the store last night. I don’t know if they’ll make it a 24/7 deal or not.

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Pat

How exactly would you propose a law to ban wearing hoodies entering a store? How would this law be enforced if people don’t comply ?

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Puti

Hi I am his co worker.
The company helped him in any ways.
But this is just my own initiative to raise a fund for him, to provide a media for anyone in community who is willing to help him. Thank you very much for all who concerned. May God bless you all!
Plese click on link below
http://gf.me/u/n2d862

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Ken

They are not men as the article suggests. They are nothing but scumbag punks. Hopefully they spend a lot of years in prison. Kudos to law enforcement for apprehending these punks quickly.

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Gardens Watcher

Why not do both? It’s not an either/or choice.

Sounds like it was a coordinated effort of local and feds. Kudos to all.

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Kunsang

It is impossible to stop each and every crime, even if you put a cop in each and every single new york street. If somebody wants to commit a crime they will do it no matter what. Just congratulate that the cop did a good job.

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brooklynmc

A) Why on earth would a pharmacy employee not cooperate with an idiot with a gun?
B) Why on earth would an idiot with a gun shoot someone over a cash register worth of money?

This is what happens when 2 “tough guys” bump into each other.

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A.Bundy

yeah, makes sense. 2 years for shooting someone in the head and robbing multiple stores. only in liberal NY. that kid that was accused for scratching an x with a box cutter on his ex girlfriend in texas was nearly give 99 years in prison before a family facebook photo exonerated him. only in republican TX. i wouldnt be shocked if these criminals got even less time in prison. Criminals are an important demographic for Democrat vote support and are aggressively protected in NY.

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Michael

Ok…for the life of me I don’t understand the point of these robberies. I mean in general this kind of crime.

Firstly, does anyone get away with it?

And secondly, even if they do, considering the risks – incarceration, potentially for much of your life if someone gets killed; and death if one of your intended victims has a gun or gets ahold of yours, or if a cop shoots you – is it even worth the payoff of what, a few hundred or thousand dollars? How many of these stores would you need to knock off successfully in order to, say, buy a car? Buy a house?

If there were two guys doing this, they were splitting the take. How many of these robberies would it take over how long a period of time to amount to enough cash to pay for anything they would want to buy? What the heck WOULD they want to buy?

I’m asking honestly, what am I missing here? What was the plan? I don’t get it!

You would need to do this as a career, over a long time, and be really, REALLY good at it, in order to do have the funds to do anything worthwhile. And just based on the video, the guy’s body language, the botched first attempt, and the speed with which they got caught…these guys sucked at this.

I almost wonder if they sort of wanted to get caught. He didn’t even cover his face!

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SMF

So when do we get the tweets from their parents saying that they are good boys and just got caught up with a bad crowd?

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J fig

He should get the death penalty. This worker went to work, didn’t plan on being a bullseye.
Get rid of the garbage.

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Member

We really don’t know what happened but I agree he should have walked away and say take anything you want BUT remember this cashier sacrificed his life so these piece of crap individuals could be caught. Seriously does it need to be a murder for 108 to catch these worthless piece of dirt individuals? What’s the update on other crimes? Thank you 108 for catching these idiots but do more to prevent these please.

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