Posted: Friday, October 18, 2013
The 17-year-old Bristol boy told the homeowners he was looking to score marijuana, but police said that was a ruse to get inside their house, where he and two men with handguns robbed and assaulted two people Wednesday night.
Bristol Township police say it didn’t take long to catch the alleged robbers, and a fourth suspect, after two of them tried to sell a stolen cellphone at the same store where it was recently bought.
The home invasion robbery was reported in the 5700 block of Mitchell Road shortly before 8 p.m. police say, when a homeowner said three men entered the home, pistol-whipped two people, and stole a cellphone and $2,300, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Inside the home were two children — a 10-month-old and 10-year-old — three adult women and a man, who required six stitches in the head, Bristol Township police Lt. Terry Hughes said. A woman who was struck was treated at the scene, he added.
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| Kenneth Moore, Taariq Norris and Rasheem Wilford. |
While police were at the scene investigating, the homeowner received a call from the AT&T salesman who recently sold him the cell phone that was stolen. He told the man someone was at the Oxford Valley Mall store trying to sell it, Hughes said.
When the salesman realized whose phone it was, he told the men he couldn’t buy it and suggested they try another mall store, Hughes said.
Bristol Township police notified Middletown and Falls police, who sent officers to the mall, Hughes said. When police arrived, they found two suspects in the food court and another two at a nearby restaurant, Hughes said. Oxford Valley Mall security officers tracked the suspects’ locations, he added.
When police apprehended two of the suspects, each had “neatly folded” wads of more than $400 cash on them, police said. One suspect also had the stolen cellphone, police said.
In the mall parking lot, police also found the maroon Chevy Malibu they believe the suspects used in the robbery, according to court documents. A review of surveillance video near Mitchell Road during the time of the robbery showed a car fitting the Malibu’s description.
While transporting the suspects to police headquarters, one suspect – Rasheem Wilford, 19, of Bristol Township — threw cash out the window along Business Route 1, Hughes said. Police recovered the money, he added.
In a police interview, the teen suspect – identified in court papers as “R.R.” – claimed he used the weed-buying ruse to get into the house, and Wilford and Taariq Norris, 18, of Bristol, then entered with handguns covered with socks, court documents said. He said the group split the stolen money.
Suspect Kenneth Moore Jr., 24, of Bristol, also told police that he gave the teen, Wilford and Norris a ride to the Oxford Valley Mall so one of them could sell the phone, the affidavit said.
Wilford, Norris and Moore were each charged with two counts of robbery, burglary, receiving stolen property, criminal trespassing, terroristic threats and conspiracy. They were arraigned Friday before Bensalem District Judge Leonard Brown, who sent them to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $1 million bail each.
“R.R.” is charged as a juvenile; his charges weren’t immediately available.
At the arraignment, police said Wilford was snickering at the charges as Brown read them. “It’s gonna be just like last time,” Wilford said, according to police.
Wilford recently had armed robbery charges against him dismissed. He and another man, whose charges were also dismissed, were charged with the June 25 armed robbery of a Bristol Township couple.
The charges were dropped after one alleged victim testified that she was no longer “100 percent” sure the defendants were the ones who robbed her and fired a gun at her friend. The other victim, Walter Jones, 60, didn’t appear in court; Jones is awaiting trial later this month in Bucks County Court on drug dealing charges.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia
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