Jewelry Store Smash-And-Grab Video Released By Police

YONKERS, NY — Yonkers police have arrested three Bronx men for a brazen broad daylight jewelry store smash-and-grab.

On Thursday, shortly before 5:20 p.m., Yonkers police were called to South Broadway, at the Golden Square Jewelry store, on a report of a group of masked men breaking the front window with a sledgehammer.

The men then fled the area in a dark SUV. Police were at the scene within minutes and canvassing units located the fleeing SUV in the Park Hill neighborhood. Officers pursued the suspect vehicle on local streets before it crashed into a residential home retaining wall on Marshall Road just east of Birch Road, police said.

The four occupants abandoned the vehicle and attempted to flee on foot. Two of the suspects were captured within minutes, and a third within an hour as they attempted to escape and conceal themselves in the wooded area adjacent to the Saw Mill River Parkway, according to authorities.

A perimeter was quickly set up in the Park Hill and Tibbetts Park areas and Yonkers police and Westchester County police continued to search for an elusive fourth suspect.

The fourth suspect has been identified and an additional arrest is anticipated. Investigators found items from the robbery in the crashed SUV.

The three arrested suspects are identified as Nykem Alston (aka Tyrese Robinson), a 21-year-old resident of the Bronx; Alfred Long, a 35-year-old resident of the Bronx; and Alexander Wilson, a 21-year-old resident of the Bronx. Alston and Long were each charged last night with felony robbery, grand larceny and burglary. Wilson remains hospitalized as a result of the crash and will be charged later. Alston and Long have been remanded to the Westchester County Jail.

"Thank you to our tireless Yonkers officers who responded swiftly and courageously last night to apprehend the suspects," Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said. "Let it be a clear, direct message to any and all criminals who think they can undermine our city — we will find you and ensure you are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law so not to terrorize our residents and businesses."

Detectives from the Major Case Squad, Crime Scene Unit and Digital Forensics Unit are investigating the case. Investigators believe that the four perpetrators, all residents of the Bronx, smashed the storefront window of the jewelry store with a crowbar and sledgehammer and removed a large amount of gold and jewelry from the front display, estimated by the storeowner to be worth about $100,000.

A store worker tried to stop the thieves with the sledgehammer before they fled, according to police.

Detectives also believe that the suspects may have been casing another jewelry store on McLean Avenue earlier. One of the suspects, now identified as "Alston," provided a false name in an effort to conceal a bench warrant for his arrest in relation to a New York City attempted murder charge in 2019, police said.

"The Yonkers Police Department offers no quarter to criminals who engage in this blatant, lawless, and violent behavior," Police Commissioner Chris Sapienza said. "We will commit every resource to track them down, arrest them, and hold them accountable. I applaud the great efforts of our Police Officers, Detectives, and Supervisors, and our partners in the Westchester County Police Department, for apprehending three of the suspects as we close in on the fourth."