Armed Robbers Tied Up Employees At Rt. 1 Business, Then Led Cops On Chase: West Windsor Police

WEST WINDSOR, NJ — Three people have been arrested after police say they tied up two employees at an AT&T store in West Windsor during the course of an armed robbery Tuesday night.

One of the suspects, a 44-year-old woman from Orange, also lead police on a high-speed chase on Route 1 that ended with her arrest and was followed by a car explosion, West Windsor Police said Wednesday morning.

Police responded to the report of the robbery at the store at 3716 Route 1 at about 8 p.m. to see a Black Chevrolet Equinox with an obscured (and later determined to be fictitious) Pennsylvania license plate leaving the scene, police said.

One officer followed the car onto Route 1 north into Plainsboro Township, where Tyreane D. Tucker-Brown ignored the officer’s attempts to pull her car over, police said.

Tucker-Brown took the next exit before getting on Route 1 south and heading back to West Windsor. She then weaved in and out of traffic in an attempt to get away from the officer, police said. Two other patrol cars joined the previous officer in what turned into a high-speed chase, according to police.

Suddenly, Tucker-Brown turned on to Carnegie Center Boulevard west past Canal Pointe Boulevard and then continued onto Heritage Boulevard north, police said. She then stopped on Heritage Boulevard at Federal Court where she was arrested without incident by an officer who was on assignment in the area. Tucker-Brown was issued a litany of motor vehicle summonses.

Shortly thereafter, her car exploded due to the extreme and intense chase that had just taken place, and police battled the fire until West Windsor Emergency Services arrived on the scene to extinguish the fire. Station #44 also responded to the scene of the fire.

Meanwhile, three officers remained at the AT&T store to investigate the armed robbery. They learned that two employees had been taken at gunpoint into the rear storage room at closing time. They were then tied up with zipties on their ankles and wrists with their hands behind their backs, police said.

While officers were on the scene, 53-year-old Gregory T. Smith and 47-year-old Benjamin Greene, both of Philadelphia, Pa., came out of the storage room and were promptly arrested without further incident, police said.

Police checked on the welfare of the employees, who were still in the storage room. Police said they found two loaded handguns, money and “other instrumentalities” in the room.One of the loaded handguns had two hollow point bullets, police said.

Tucker-Brown, Smith, and Green were all charged with robbery, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, kidnapping and eluding. They were subsequently turned over to the custody of the Mercer County Workhouse pending bail hearings at the Mercer County Superior Court.

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