Wallingford Police Poised to Arrest Second ATM Smash-and-Grab Suspect

Wallingford police right now have targeted a suspect and are "looking for probable cause to arrest" him in the early morning robbery of a Shell gas station in that town, that has led to one arrest already and a manhunt near Maloney High School in Meriden, according to the department's spokesman Lt. Marc Mikulski.

At 3:33 a.m. Wallingford police discovered that the front doors of the Shell gas station at 1059 North Colony Road had been smashed in and an ATM machine was missing, while responding to an alarm.

Police from Wallingford, Meriden and a special task force found a stolen minivan near Bee Street in Meriden, with an ATM inside, using information from the multi-level police special task force that was created to address the recent rash of these type of "smash and grab" robberies.

Ramon Johnson, Jr., 23, of 375 Winthrop Avenue, New Haven, was arrested at the scene, while another man fled on foot, prompting a chase and a search of the area by police.  The suspect eventually stole a car and fled the area, according to Wallingford Police.

The search caused a 2-hour delay to the start of classes at Maloney High School. Principal Ann Hushin received a call from Meriden Police at around 6 a.m. on her drive in to the school about the incident. When she pulled up to the building, she said she saw police interviewing one of the suspects directly behind the school.  

Hushin phoned Board of Education Superintendent Mark Benigni and the two decided to push off the school's opening until 9:30 a.m. She alerted parents and all school faculty and staff by a mass e-mail sent through Maloney's new emergency alert system Alert Now.

 Nearly 100 students and many faculty were already at the school. Staff locked all exterior school doors except for the front, and at about 6:20 ordered all students to be in classrooms with an instructor in it, barring them from walking through the hallways  and being near windows.

In about 40 minutes, Hushin said things returned to normal.

"Everything went smoothly and everything went well," she said. "My priority is to make sure the students are safe and teachers are safe."

Johnson is being held on a $100,000 bond and is charged with Burglary in the Second Degree, Conspiracy to Burglary in the Second Degree, Larceny in the Third in Degree, Conspiracy to Larceny in the Third Degree, and Possession of Burglar Tools.