Man Threatens to Kill Melville Clerk Over Cigarette Purchase: Police

Photo: (l-r) Hector Gonzalez, Timothy Flythe and Oscar Madrid

Authorities arrested three Huntington Station men and seized two illegal loaded handguns after a Melville store clerk’s life was threatened on Tuesday morning, police say.

According to authorities, Hector Gonzalez, 26, entered 7-Eleven, located at 837 Walt Whitman Road, and asked to purchase cigarettes but was denied by the store clerk after not providing proper identification at 11:05 a.m.

Gonzalez went to his car and returned carrying what appeared to be a gun in his waistband and was accompanied by 18-year-old Oscar Madrid and 18-year-old Timothy Flythe, police say.

Gonzalez then allegedly threatened to kill the clerk. The clerk wrote down the license plate of the vehicle the men arrived in, but police say Madrid pulled the note out of the clerk’s hand.

Gonzalez, Madrid and Flythe fled the scene in a vehicle that was driven by Gonzalez’s mother, police say.

The clerk called 911 as the men fled and a Melville Fire Department paramedic listening to the police scanner saw the suspects’ vehicle and notified authorities of their location. Officers pulled over the vehicle near Route 110 and Route 109 in Farmingdale at 11:19 a.m.

An investigation led to the recovery of two illegal loaded handguns inside the vehicle that police say belonged to Flythe.

Gonzalez was charged with second-degree menacing, Flythe was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and Madrid was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny.

The men were held at the Second Precinct and are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Images via SCPD