SUSPECTS HELD IN 2 ROBBERIES IN N. BERGEN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 17, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B08

Two men being held by Newark police are suspects in two robberies in North Bergen, including one in which a 31-year-old Cliffside Park woman was struck and knocked to the ground, police said.

The woman was walking on Eighth Street, just east of Grand Avenue, about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday when a man stepped out of a car and demanded her pocketbook, said Lt. Timothy Kelly, township police spokesman.

“She started to run, and he struck her on the back of the head with an object,” Kelly said. “She fell, then she gave up the pocketbook.”

The woman wrote down the New York license plate number of the white, two-door 1982 Chevrolet Camaro as it sped away with two men in it. She was treated at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center for a head wound and released, a hospital spokesman said.

About 15 minutes later, the same car pulled up to the drive-up window at the Roy Rogers restaurant at 1440 Tonnelle Ave., about a quarter-mile from where the woman was robbed, Kelly said.

A restaurant employee told police he was confronted at the window by a man holding a gun and demanding money. The man appeared nervous and said, “Give me everything,” the employee told police. He handed over a tray with an undisclosed amount of money in it, Kelly said, and the men drove off.

About 8:30 p.m., in Newark’s Weequahic Park, police who heard a broadcast from North Bergen seized the car and arrested Melvin Crooks, 26, and Kenneth Snead, 24, both of Newark.

They were charged with being in possession of a stolen car, which had been taken in Newark early Wednesday evening, said Sgt. Alonzo Evans, Newark police spokesman.

The victims of the North Bergen robberies will be shown a photo lineup that includes the suspects, Kelly said.

Police are also investigating the men in connection with Monday’s robbery of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave., he added. As in the Roy Rogers holdup, two men drove to the restaurant’s drive-up window and, with one of them brandishing a gun, demanded money. They escaped with an undetermined amount of cash.

ID: 17366272 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)