Police are investigating a late-night home invasion and assault of two women in Morris Park that occurred earlier this month.
Three unidentified men gained entry to a home on Yates Avenue on the block between Peirce and Van Nest avenues at around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, January 15, according to the NYPD.
One of the three men brandished a gun and demanded cash and property from the residents, two 31-year-old women.
The armed intruder then proceeded to pistol whip the two women in the head before fleeing the home with two iPhone 6 smartphones, a purse, several credit cards and cash.
Commander for the 49th Precinct Captain Thomas Alps told residents at the Tuesday, January 31, precinct council meeting at the Morris Park Community Association that the investigation into the robbery was being investigated by the Bronx Robbery Squad.
Alps did not bring up the robbery during his monthly report but later discussed it briefly when a resident asked about it toward the end of the meeting.
“The victims in that case, we believe, were targeted, meaning the perpetrators knew of them,” Alps said. “It wasn’t a random thing, they went to that location for a specific reason.”
One of the women managed to flee the home while the robbery was in progress, he added.
Security camera footage from several homes on the street showed the three suspects getting into a dark-colored SUV, possible a Jeep Liberty, before driving off down the one-way road.
The suspects were described as black males in their early to mid-twenties.
The armed suspect was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and gray sweatpants, with a gray semi-automatic handgun.
A second suspect wore a gray sweatsuit, while the third was wore all black clothing.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDC
Alps also told those on hand there were six burglaries last week in the Van Nest area, an unusually high number.
That number included four residential burglaries and two commercial ones that resulted in an arrest.
Three of the residential burglaries occurred on Melville Street, and in all four cases the burglars got in through front doors that were left unlocked.
Alps said he believed the crimes were all carried out by the same person, who Alps said would likely soon be caught.
“He got away but he dropped his jacket, so we’re going to process that jacket and we anticipate getting DNA off of it,” Alps said. “And we anticipate he’s going to have a criminal history I anticipate we’re going to identify and arrest him.”
Allerton Merchant Association Gene DeFrancis thanked Alps for making an arrest in another burglary in that area, and said he was hoping an arrest in connection to another recent burglary would be made soon.
