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Cops: Teens mugged at gunpoint
One alleged Smithtown-area robber caught; others at large
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A Brentwood man allegedly involved in two separate group muggings of Smithtown teens has been arrested, police reported Jan. 29.
Officers arrested Xavier Pinero, 20, of Brentwood Jan. 27 and charged him with a first and a second degree count of robbery. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Suffolk First District Court Jan. 29 and is being held on $5,000 cash bail or $25,000 bond, according to the state courts website.
Pinero was allegedly among a group of four men who confronted three adolescents Jan. 26 at 1:15 pm on a wooded path — a portion of the Long Island Greenbelt Trail adjacent to the Uncle Giuseppe's shopping center— near Route 111 and Woodhollow Road in Smithtown. The men displayed a handgun and demanded cell phones and cash from the teens, police said.
Later that day, two teenagers skateboarding on Ledgewood Drive in Smithtown were confronted by three males, allegedly including Pinero, who demanded their portable MP3 players, police reported. One of the teens was assaulted. The men were described by a victim as Hispanic and traveling in a red sedan, according to a police field report of the incident.
Pinero was implicated in the two alleged robberies based on descriptions provided by the victims, according to Detective Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick of the Fourth Precinct. Investigation into the identities of the other alleged robbers "is ongoing," Fitzpatrick said Monday.
An email circulated Jan. 27 by a friend of a parent of one of the first incident's victims also described those four perpetrators as Hispanic in appearance. "The kids gave them what they had and no one was hurt," the email stated.
While at Fourth Precinct headquarters giving their account to police, "another [youth] came in from the hospital totally beat up — with bandages, and bloody," the email continued, and the writer's friend "overheard that [the victim] did not want to give up" an iPod.
No mugshot of Pinero was made available to press. He has been assigned a Legal Aid attorney, according to the courts website; however, a Suffolk Legal Aid employee said the office was not authorized to release information on the attorney's identity.
Detectives ask that anyone with information regarding these incidents call the Fourth Squad at 854-8452 or report it anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.
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