The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Man, 21, charged in holdup of grocery
PORTLAND >> A 21-year-old Portland man is under arrest after he allegedly pushed his way into the Tri-Town Foods supermarket at closing time Tuesday night and proceeded to rob the store at gunpoint.
The suspect, his face hidden by a ski mask, herded five employees into the cash room at the rear of the store, at 316 Marlborough St. on Route 66, demanded money, then left with an undetermined amount of currency, police said.
Meantime, some two-dozen officers from three area departments, in addition to Portland,
swarmed to the scene. The officers, many of them armed with either highpowered automatic rifles, including AR-15s and M-4 carbines and/or shotguns, surrounded the building on three sides.
In the end, the thief walked out a produce loading dock at the rear of the store — and was captured by waiting Portland Police Lt. Ron Milardo.
With assistance from Portland Officer Paul Liseo and Middletown Officer Joshua Ward, Milardo took the suspect, identified as Jayquan T. Swain, into custody after a brief struggle during which Swain was subdued with a stun gun, police said. In the process, Swain, whose last known address was in the nearby Chatham Court housing complex, was stripped of a stolen Smith & Wesson Model 40 handgun that police say he used in the robbery.
Swain was arrested and charged with several felonies: first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, second-degree larceny, second-degree unlawful restraint, threatening, carrying a dangerous weapon and possession of a stolen firearm. He was taken to Middletown police headquarters, where he was initially held in lieu of $500,000 bail. He was scheduled to appear Wednesday morning in Middletown Superior Court for arraignment.
John Goncalves, whose son Rodric, 17, a Portland High School student who works in the store, said his wife Malisa was waiting outside the store to pick up Rodric just before 9 p.m. when she saw a masked gunman force the night manager back into the store. Malisa Goncalves called 911, which set the police response in motion, and then phoned her husband, who was in Hartford.
John Goncalves raced to the scene in his pickup truck, which he parked across from the plaza on Route 66 as he waited anxiously for the tense incident to play itself out.
Jesse Amato, a Portland resident who works in the store’s produce department, said the robbery was like a bad TV show. Amato said the suspect gathered the employees at the service desk and then marched them to the back of the store to the cash room.
Once there, he demanded, “Give me all the money!” as he brandished the gun, Amato said.
An employee loaded the money into a backpack.
Amato said as he and his fellow employees huddled together in the cash room, unaware of the overwhelming police response that had been generated by an erroneous report that four gunmen instead of one had entered the store.
In quick order, a number of Middletown cruisers descended on the plaza, followed by East Hampton officers and state police.
It was just as well that Swain also was not aware of the swelling police presence, or else “it might have turned into a hostage situation,” Amato said. Despite the way Swain allegedly brandished his gun, “He didn’t give off the vibe that he wanted to kill anyone,” he added.
But if the robber had become aware of police massing outside the store, “it might have pushed him so that it could have gone either way,” Amato supposed.
Five or ten minutes after he had entered the store, the suspect prepared to leave, Amato said. As he did, he ordered Amato to “give me the tapes!” — surveillance video.
Amato said he looked at Swain and said, “Dude, this is 2017, not 1995.”
Instead, the suspect forced Amato to rip out the surveillance system — but did not take it, he said. He then ordered employees to let him out a door without an alarm, Amato said.
Amato said the employees raised the door on the produce delivery dock and watched as the suspect disappeared into the night. But almost immediately, the suspect was confronted by Milardo, who ordered him to “drop the gun,” Amato said.
Milardo, the department’s senior officer, was joined by Liseo and Ward as they wrestled Swain to the ground after deploying the stun gun, Milardo explained, adding that the weapon used in the robbery was reported stolen from Middletown.
Meanwhile, other officers ordered the store employees to come out of the market with their hands up.
“They handcuffed all of us while they straightened out who was who,” Amato said.
Once they realized Amato and his colleagues were store employees, “They were super nice,” said Amato, who added that it was his first time being involved in a robbery.
Wednesday morning, Milardo said he “couldn’t say enough about all the support we received, especially from Middletown police, as well as East Hampton and the state police.”
Swain was also charged with risk of injury to a minor, third-degree assault, second-degree unlawful restraint and disorderly conduct on a warrant from a Nov. 11 incident in Middletown.
Swain is being held in lieu of a $75,000 cash bond for the Portland incident and $1,500 cash or surety for the warrant. Both cases were continued to Feb. 7.