County police catch burglary suspects
Two men and a woman suspected of robbing a series of east end businesses are now in police custody.
On Tuesday morning, Prince William police arrested Roger Alexander Hayes, of 12719 Autumn Crest in Oak Hill; Darryl Ponce Kinnard, of 6707 Janet Lane in Ft. Washington, Md.; and Lornette Henry, of 3912 Regency Parkway in Suitland, Md., after they stole a cash drawer from Dents Seafood in Woodbridge, police said Thursday.
At around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sgt. John Twomey, a patrol officer, heard breaking glass in the area around Dents in the 13700 block of Smoketown Road, said Detective Dennis Mangan, a police spokesman.
Twomey then saw Henry, who was carrying the cash drawer, and one of the men unnamed by police running away from Dents toward a car in which the other man waited, Mangan said. Twomey stopped the car and made the arrest, Mangan added.
The arrest may have delivered to police those responsible for more than 20 similar “smash-and-grab” robberies in the area, police said. In these cases, the burglars shattered glass front doors to get inside and then often rip the cash drawer out of the register.
“Weve had a number of similar burglaries in the area,” Mangan said. “This is probably connected to a significant number of them.”
Police searched Hayes, 37, for evidence of his connection with the Dents break-in while he was in custody Tuesday and may be able to link him to other robberies, court documents show.
Police took a hair sample, a DNA sample with an oral swab and removed pieces of broken glass from Hayes, whose arm was lacerated. The glass removed from Hayes matched the glass from Dents, according to a search warrant.
Detective Patrick Quinn, who is leading the investigation, was in Maryland on Thursday and unavailable for comment, Mangan said.
Quinn has already charged Hayes, Kinnard, 46, and Henry, 41, none of whom has a previous criminal record in Prince William County, with statutory burglary and grand larceny, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and possession of burglary tools, punishable up to 10 years in jail, according to the Office of the Commonweaths Attorney.