“Maybe he likes the food in the neighborhood,” Detective Martin Kahn told CLIFFVIEW PILOT following the arrest of 39-year-old Tirzo Manuel Pena for the Oct. 8 holdup.
Images captured by business surveillance cameras and solid detective work led to the identification of Pena as the primary suspect, Kahn said. Police then distributed photos of the 1991 Toyota pickup with Texas license plates, he said.
Detectives were looking for Pena in several locations, including at a previous address on Ridgewood Avenue in Brooklyn, when they got a call from an alert citizen earlier today, Kahn said.
Officers rushed to the corner of Anderson Avenue and Walker Street, surrounded the pickup and took Pena into custody.
Pena was being processed at Fairview police headquarters this afternoon on charges of robbery, two weapons possession counts and making terroristic threats. Detectives also were seeking a search warrant for his truck, in an effort to find the weapon.
The victim, a Guatemalan immigrant, told police he was standing near the corner a week ago when Pena pulled up in the truck and called him over.
He said Pena began asking him something in Spanish and then, when he got close enough to the vehicle, demanded money.
When he said he didn’t have any, the victim told police, Pena pulled out a handgun.
He said he then handed over the contents of his wallet.
(IMAGES: Courtesy FAIRVIEW PD)
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