Man Robs Home Depot, Assaults Employee, Crashes Car, Burglarizes APG Shed: Police

BEL AIR, MD — A Brooklyn, New York, man has been arrested in connection to a theft at the Home Depot in Bel Air and subsequent assault of an employee there plus a crash into a parked vehicle.

On Sept. 30, Bel Air police officers were called to the Home Depot for a theft in progress. The suspect took off and while leaving the store, assaulted an employee. He also hit a parked vehicle while escaping the parking lot and took off on Route 24, the police department noted.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office saw the suspect's vehicle and tried to stop it but the suspect refused to stop. Deputies pursued the vehicle down Route 24 to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Edgewood. The suspect bypassed the guard gate and entered the proving ground where the vehicle pursuit continued with involvement from Aberdeen Proving Ground and Military Police, a police report disclosed.

Eventually the suspect hopped out of the vehicle and ran into the wood. While on the proving ground, police believe he burglarized a storage shed. The APG Police K9 Unit and a helicopter dispatched by the U.S. Army joined the search and the suspect was taken into custody on the proving ground, according to the Bel Air Police Department.

After being charged and released by APG Police, the suspect was transferred into BAPD custody. The suspect was identified as Jemell Bender of New York. His vehicle was seized and a search warrant was issued for his vehicle. Upon execution of the search warrant, more than $15,000 of suspected stolen items from numerous stores, including the Bel Air Home Depot, were found in his vehicle. Bender is suspected of several retail thefts in Virginia, too.