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Joshua Perez, 22, was taken into custody after pointing a gun at officers during a raid of his home, authorities said Thursday.
Investigators had identified Perez as one of three armed robbers responsible for a Oct. 10 carjacking, another on Dec. 5 and the robbery later than night of a local gas station, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachel A. Honig said.
Surveillance cameras captured video of Perez and two other robbers emerging from a sedan, pointing handguns at occupants of another vehicle and then fleeing with money and cellphones in the victims’ vehicle and the one they showed up in during the October holdup, Honig said.
That second car was found abandoned, with a fingerprint of Perez’s and a cellphone belonging to one of the victims inside, she said.
Two months later, two robbers pointed guns at another victim before fleeing with the driver’s car, money and cellphone, the U.S. attorney said.
That car was used an hour later during the armed robbery of a nearby Trenton gas station, Honig said.
The trio had pulled up, ordered an undisclosed number of victims to the ground and pistol-whipped them, she said. Perez, meanwhile, went into the station and robbed the attendant at gunpoint, Honig said.
Once again, security camera footage helped identify Perez, she said.
He was taken into custody without incident after pointing a gun at his captors, the U.S. attorney said. A gun and other evidence linking him to the crimes were found in his home, she said.
Perez, who was released from state prison last May after serving 2½ years for a resisting arrest conviction, had already been in custody following his arrest on other charges when her office brought its case, Honig said.
He now faces federal charges of Hobbs Act robbery, two counts of carjacking, three counts of using a firearm during a violent crime and other weapons offenses that include possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Honig credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Newark Field Division’s Trenton Satellite Office, Trenton police and detectives with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office with the investigation leading to the charges.
The investigation is part of the Violent Crime Initiative (VCI) in Mercer County, through which the U.S. Attorney’s Office and both the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and Trenton police have partnered with state, federal, county, and local law enforcement to investigate violent crime in and around the capitol city, Honig said.
Participants include her office, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA New Jersey Division, U.S. Marshals, and the N.J. State Police Regional Operations and Intelligence Center/Real Time Crime Center, the U.S. attorney said.
Handling the case for the government is Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katie Magee Lee of Honig’s Criminal Division in Trenton.
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