A 911 call about a woman in labor resulted in police thwarting a burglary at an Albany Street store, a prosecutor said.
One of two men accused of breaking into the store was sentenced Thursday to up to four years in state prison.
Alexander Park, 21, of Van Vranken Avenue, pleaded guilty earlier to third-degree attempted burglary. A co-defendant, Jonathan Rivera, 20, of Front Street, pleaded guilty to a similar charge in exchange for six months in jail.
The two admitted to burglarizing the Hamilton Hill Meat Market, at 789 Albany St., on the evening of Sept. 29. Earlier in the day, the police had raided the store looking for marijuana.
After Thursday’s court appearance, prosecutor Ed Moynihan described the early moments of the burglary and the first indication to police that it was happening.
A man whose girlfriend was in labor had called 911. During the call, while the dispatcher was giving instructions on how to keep the woman comfortable, the boyfriend told the dispatcher of hearing a gunshot. No shots were fired in the burglary; the sound apparently was the result of noise from the break-in.
“Can you just hurry up and send them,” the man told the dispatcher, “my girlfriend is petrified.”
When police arrived, witnesses on the street directed them to the burglars, Moynihan said.
When Rivera and Park broke in, Moynihan said, no one was at the business. They were accused of trying to take cigarettes and cigars.
“My understanding is they went in because there was nobody there and they knew there would be some property,” Moynihan said.
Park’s attorney, Michael Braccini, said his client got the stiffer sentence because of a prior felony. He also said his client made a mistake and wasn’t a bad person.
The operator of the meat market, Rabin Prabhudial, 47, of Albany Street, was arrested shortly before the raid in a traffic stop.
Inside Prabhudial’s car, police found two large plastic bags of what tested positive to be marijuana, police said then. The marijuana weighed in at more than a pound, according to papers filed in court.
Prabhudial later pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree criminal possession of marijuana and was sentenced in May to three years of probation.
Categories: Uncategorized
