Police

Update: Police release names of three suspects charged in CVS robbery

UPDATE: Riverhead police have named the three men arrested Wednesday in connection with an early morning robbery at the CVS Pharmacy on Route 58 in Riverhead.

Police said Jhmil Dawson, 26, of Coram first entered the store around 7 a.m. to count the number of people inside. Moments later he returned to the store with another man and they were armed with a pistol, police said.

Two employees inside the store were able to flee after being approached by one of the suspects, and one of the employees set off the store alarm, police said.

Ishawn Jackson, 16, of Calverton and Lavon Dawson, 17, of Riverhead were also arrested in connection with the robbery. All three suspects were charged with first-degree attempted robbery. The elder Dawson was also charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance.

All three suspects are being held overnight and will be arraigned Thursday morning.

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 ORIGINAL STORY (9:19 a.m.)

Two suspects are in custody at Riverhead police headquarters in relation to this morning’s reported armed robbery at CVS, according to police.

The duo – whose names were not released by police yet – are set to be arraigned at Riverhead Town Justice Court.

According to Officer Rich Oliver, the two were spotted by a farm worker in the fields at Anderson Farms, and one of the two men had a warrant out for his arrest.

Oliver said one of the suspects was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, and the other a green bandana.

The same CVS was robbed in mid-January after police said at the time that two men entered the store around 3:30 a.m. and forced an employee to open a safe at gunpoint. Police have not reported any arrests in relation to the robbery.

Police were called shortly after 7 a.m. on Wednesday to the pharmacy after someone reportedly brandished a gun in the store, and ended up fleeing north on foot.

GRANT PARPAN PHOTO | Riverhead Police are investigating a robbery at CVS on Route 58.
GRANT PARPAN PHOTO | Riverhead Police are investigating a robbery at CVS on Route 58.

No injuries were reported in the incident, though employees were seen outside not long after the robbery, hugging one another and wiping tears from one another’s eyes.

Mr. Oliver said two suspects had been spotted by eyewitnesses fleeing north from the scene of the crime, toward TJ Maxx, one of whom was reportedly wearing a green bandana.

Detectives on scene would not say how many people exactly were involved in the robbery.

“We’re not sure,” Det. Sgt. Joe Loggia said. “We have some good leads.”

Several police cars responded to Wednesday’s crime, and by 9:45 a.m. a police barrier at the store had been lifted.

With reporting from Grant Parpan.

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