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April 7, 2016 By Christian Murray
The police are looking for a man who has been robbing fast food restaurants and gas stations in Queens and Brooklyn in the past three weeks, with his latest victim being the owner of the Subway Restaurant on Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside.
The alleged perpetrator, who police have named as August Watkins, has walked into 16 stores since March 26, pretending to have a firearm and then taking cash from the register.
The NYPD released a photo of Watkins, 30, on Thursday, who they believe is responsible for the robbery pattern that includes several heists in Sunnyside and Woodside.
Watkins (NYPD)
Subway Restaurant, located at 43-19 Queens Blvd, was targeted Tuesday at 11:45 pm, according to police. The police provided no further details on the incident, although this was not the only store in Sunnyside to be targeted.
99 Cent Paradise, located at 42-06 Greenpoint Avenue was robbed on Saturday, April 2, at 1:25 pm, according to police. Less than 10 minutes later Choice Liquors, located at 43-42 48th Street was hit.
Some Woodside stores were also robbed, according to police. The Rite Aid, located at 58-01 Queens Blvd, was robbed on Friday, April 1 at 6:05 am. Also, the Mobile Gas Station at 68-09 Queens Blvd was robbed on Thursday, March 31 at 3:40 am.
The other incidents took place in Long Island City, Ozone Park and Rego Park in Queens as well as Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Police describe Watkins as a 30-year-old Hispanic male who is 6 feet tall, weighing 215 pounds, with brown eyes and short black hair. He was observed in one of the incidents wearing gray jogging pants and a black 3/4-length jacket.
Anyone with information regarding Watkins’ whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
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23 Comments
Please read my comments again since you didn’t fully read them the first time.
1. I would never claim to be smart enough to tell you how to completely REVAMP stop and frisk but you could start by strictly looking for the weapons. By this I mean, don’t stop a kid to search for weapons and when he only has a joint on him you ruin his record by arresting him. Look for the weapons. Stick to getting weapons of the streets.
2.Youve cherry picked cases. Like I said in my previous comments, more often than not they do have a weapon instead of pretending. (ok, not in this case) What about all the slashings that have happened? I can name 10 cases where they have real weapons compared to your 1 when the criminal is faking it.
3.I do not watch Fox News as previously mentioned and I don’t have a lord and master.
4.You really weaken your argument when you have to start calling people names.
-Bornandbredhere People think the real world is what they see on TV and in the movies. They don’t see or know the work that goes into an investigation. Policing is also hampered by the fact that when it is effective you more then likely don’t know its even present until something happens, the quantifiable measures of good policing are sometimes very hard to see. Thanks for providing some of the details that go into an effective investigation.
This response goes out to anyone asking where the cops are. Let me tell you where the cops are:
1) they showed up at every job and established what crime occurred
2) pulled footage from cameras in the stores and the surrounding areas – what’s that you say? Your cameras don’t work? Great. How about a description.
3) some of these crimes have occurred in other precincts and at various times of day and in different stores. It’s an erratic pattern. Shall we pull all resources off of our counter terrorist details and stop showing up at family dispute jobs just to catch ONE man?
4) the detectives compiled all this info in a rather short time and got a solid photo they are 100% sure about and are now asking for the communities help because this guy isn’t sitting up in last known address he’s left with the department waiting for us to show up again and lock his ass up YOU FINGER POINTING, BLAME GAME PLAYING MOTHER HEIFFERS.
I wish you’d all get off your high horses. The thin air up there is making you stupid.
“police have named as August Watkins” interesting name choice
wtf Hoe Did He Not Get Caught Yet Wher are the Police “;( They Should all Be out Ther Unbelievable
Cop to busy giving out tickets rather then catching criminals!!!
drake??
How do they know who he is already? He a career criminal?
Only In America.
Hopefully after DiBlasios first and last term, the new mayor will bring back a revamped version of stop and frisk
-Don Maksim Gelman stabbing spree was a 28-hour killing spree lasting from February 11 to 12, 2011, in New York City, which involved the killing of four people and the wounding of five others. Maksim Gelman was arrested and pleaded guilty to the crimes. This crime happened with stop and frisk in full swing in the administration before D’Blasio. Stop and frisk didn’t save these victims. We see you’re a banner waving fool who likes to politicize horrific events.
This is why drugs are bad.
-Don Keedik To quote the article about perp August Watkins, “has walked into 16 stores since March 26, pretending to have a firearm and then taking cash from the register.” Please explain your stop and frisk policy and how it would prevent a crime being committed without a firearm, you imbecile. Go back to school and take a remedial reading course.
@blame You’re absolutely right, this fool Don is an imbecile and Fox News has unleashed an army of imbeciles on The American public.
While there was plenty wrong with stop and frisk, it took a lot of weapons of the street. All these slashing going on aren’t being done with pencils. More often than not, that’s a gun not there finger.
Btw, I despise Fox News as much as your NBC, PuffPost, John Oliver crap.
-Don Please explain your stop and frisk policy and how it would prevent a crime being committed without a firearm:
@Don You have that two dimensional thinking that is all too familiar with Fox News Fans. Just because somebody points out fault with your lord and master does not automatically make them a fan of the competition . So you missed the part of the article about the crook”pretending” to have a gun, hahaha
-Don Please try to stay on topic..Explain how stop and frisk would have prevented this criminal and these crimes which involved no weapon? You posted it now man up and own up punk.
Jerks like Don constantly try to hijack the conversation and turn it into a conversation that meets their silly agendas. Notice how he still has not conceded Watkins was unarmed and he still hammers his stop and frisk talking point. Hey Don why don’t you find a conversation about armed robbery or about the topic of stop and frisk instead of trying to hijack every conversation and comment stream on the web. Obnoxious behavior like yours actually turns people off of your cause. Get some manners and clas you blowhard. And add an education to that list as well.
he be a good kid
Find this punk now!
We are just hearing of this now?
To be fair, this is better than most other delayed reports, it’s still relatively fresh. However, what I don’t get is how could this piece of crap rob one place, just keep walking and rob another place with cops doing nothing. What this website needs to do is ask how long did it take cops to arrive at 1st scene and what did they do afterwards?
Also the author claims the low-life “pretending to have a firearm” how do you know he didn’t have a firearm? Do you want people not to comply with his request? I think that’s a pretty dangerous claim here.
We got thugs walking around robbing stores in bright daylight. Do we have to hide firearms under the counter so we can blast these thugs when they walk into our stores? Hopefully it’s not a crime in NY to shoot the robbers in the face.