Police nab robbery suspect in Uniontown
Uniontown police Officer John Kauer escorts Cedric Jackson Jr. of Uniontown from the Uniontown Police Department on Thursday for arraignment on robbery charges.
Uniontown police Officer John Kauer escorts Cedric Jackson Jr. of Uniontown from the Uniontown Police Department on Thursday for arraignment on robbery charges.
Uniontown police said they have captured one of three men who allegedly have been robbing city convenience stores, after officers said the suspect robbed the Sunoco convenience store on Morgantown Street early Thursday.
Cedric Belvin Jackson Jr., 20, of 32 Wilson Ave., Uniontown, was charged before Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros with three counts of robbery and related charges on Thursday.
And Uniontown police Detective Donald M. Gmitter said that Jackson will be facing additional charges in at least one more robbery in the coming days.
Gmitter said Jackson entered the Sunoco at 1:05 a.m. and robbed an employee there.
He said police responded to the location and got a description of the suspect, later identified as Jackson, and began to canvass the area for him.
Gmitter said that state police troopers who were assisting city police spotted a man matching the suspect’s description and gave chase but lost him on Searight Avenue.
During the chase, police said that Jackson abandoned a backpack he had been wearing and Uniontown K-9 Officer Matthew S. Painter used police dog Xavier to track Jackson to a residence in Pershing Court where he was taken into custody.
Gmitter said that police found two handguns, one of which was stolen, as well as a stolen cellphone and stolen cigarettes inside the backpack.
Gmitter said that Jackson was one of three men who robbed the BFS store on Morgantown Street on Tuesday evening.
Police said the robbery occurred around 8:40 a.m., and video surveillance shows two of the suspects entering the store while a third begins to assault a man outside the building.
The suspects were described as three black men, each wearing hooded sweatshirts and each with something covering their faces.
Two of the three men were armed with handguns, and a third suspect was wearing a backpack, the same bag that was taken by police early Thursday, officials said.
After forcing the cashier behind the counter, the men stole cash from the register, and the man with the backpack stole several packages of cigarettes.
The suspect who assaulted the man outside the building forced the man into the store and into a corner, police said. After the other suspects got the cash and cigarettes, they made the man and the employee close themselves inside an office before the men ran from the building, authorities said.
The entire incident was captured on store video surveillance.
Gmitter said that Jackson is also charged for his role in an armed robbery at Canton’s restaurant when police allege he and another man entered the eatery, armed with handguns and robbed employees.
Jackson was placed in Fayette County Prison following his arraignments Thursday.
He will face preliminary hearings at a later date before Metros.