Four Long Island teens were indicted on robbery and weapons charges in connection with a gunpoint robbery early last month, officials said Wednesday.
The four defendants are accused of contacting the victim on social media, pretending to be interested in buying clothes the person had advertised online, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
After a violent altercation with the victim in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Middle Island, the group fled with approximately $6,000 worth of clothing, prosecutors said.
According to investigators, 19-year-old Isaac Brutus, of Lindenhurst, and a 17-year-old boy from Shirley allegedly met with the victim on Oct. 9 around 5 p.m.
A few minutes later, 18-year-old Aubre Vandunk, of Oceanside, and a 16-year-old boy from East Patchogue joined the group and started a conversation about the clothes they had falsely expressed interest in buying, prosecutors said.
During the interaction, Brutus allegedly tried to steal the victim’s car but was met with resistance. Brutus and Vandunk then allegedly brandished firearms and got into a physical altercation with the victim.
During the fight, the other two defendants, who haven’t been named because of their ages, took the merchandise from inside the victim’s vehicle.
The four then allegedly fled to a friend’s apartment nearby, but were later located by Suffolk police.
After searching the apartment, detectives recovered three loaded illegal firearms, ammunition, a BB gun that was designed to look like a firearm, as well as some of the stolen property.
On Nov. 6, they were arraigned on first-degree robbery, criminal use of a firearm, and six counts of weapons possession.
They were held on $500,000 bond and are expected back in court in the coming weeks, online court records show.
Each defendant faces up to 25 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision if convicted of the top count, officials said.
