Prince George’s County Police arrested two men, including a university student, for a Jan. 10 robbery on Knox Road, and they hope to link the suspects to several other robberies in the area, police said yesterday.
Police tabbed university student junior Antuane LaMont Allen and Jewison Hurtault, both 20-year-olds from Montgomery County, as the men responsible for robbing a student walking home from Ratsie’s of his wallet and cell phone. They arrested the men Friday, and both are in jail facing assault, armed robbery and handgun charges.
As investigators build their case, they are still looking into the possibility that the two men are involved in other reported robberies in the College Park area, police said.
Four robberies occurred between Jan. 10 and Jan. 22, an unusual spike, said Sgt. Brian Reilly, who heads the District 1 Robbery Suppression Team. Reilly said he hopes he can find evidence that the suspects were involved in one or more of the other three incidents, and he plans to bring more victims in to look at photo lineups.
“Since the arrests, we haven’t had any new robberies,” Reilly said. “We still have to do some more police work. Hopefully it comes back to these guys that we already locked up, and we can close out some cases.”
County investigators obtained photos of the suspects taken from the surveillance video from a 7-Eleven where they had used the victim’s credit card, but had not yet identified the men.
In a separate incident, University Police came across Allen and Hurtault after a fight was reported in downtown College Park. The officers conducted field interviews with the two men, taking their names and photos.
When university officers reviewed the photos of Allen and Hurtault, they recognized them as the two men from the 7-Eleven surveillance footage. County investigators were notified quickly and made the arrests.
University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said university detectives are investigating whether Allen and Hurtalt have been involved in any other campus robberies, and he expects at least one on-campus case to be closed soon.
Assistant Commander of District 1 Capt. Daniel Lipsey said the case is a great example of how Prince George’s County Police and University Police have improved their interdepartmental communication. In the past, the two departments have not worked together as well as they do now, he said.
“Collaboration between two agencies is what closed this case,” Lipsey said. “With the help of University Police, our detectives were able to tie the evidence together and build a case. We’re one team with one mission – to fight crime.”
Dillon echoed this sentiment.
“Our work allowed the county’s investigators to put names to the faces,” Dillon said. “And to their credit, they made the arrests and are following up on closing these other cases.”
Lipsey said District 1 robberies are up this season from the same time last year, particularly commercial robberies.
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