Investigators working to determine scope of crime spree
Updated at 1:40 p.m. to correct the alleged owner of drugs, BB gun
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
Zane Robinson (from left) is placed in a patrol car by Coatesville Det./Sgt. Brandon Harris and Officer Carmen Mollichella for transport to his arraignment Thursday on robbery charges.
Coatesville Police Cpl. Ken Michels had a hunch where he might find the second pair of robbery suspects sought in connection with a series of unsettling holdups in the city during the past month, and it paid off on Friday.
Michels said he was familiar with one of the men and had a photo of the other, whom he recognized as soon as he spotted a group in the 200 block of West Diamond Street. Wakeem J. Bowman, 20, and Ramon Luis Rivera Ortiz, 17, were taken into custody without incident, he said, adding that Rivera Ortiz had drugs and “a very realistic-looking BB gun” in his possession. Ortiz’s name was released because he is being charged as an adult, police said.
On Thursday, police apprehended Zane Robinson, 19, of South Coatesville, and Christopher P. Howard, 19, of Exton. Both were taken to Chester County Prison after failing to post bail that was set at $100,000 cash apiece. The four co-defendants are accused of terrifying residents during a robbery spree that dates back at least a month, police said.
During their arraignment on Saturday, Magisterial District Judge Gregory Hines set Bowman’s bail at $75,000 cash, and Ortiz’s at $50,000 cash, police said. Both were taken to Chester County Prison. According to court records, Bowman is on probation for a 2012 drug conviction.
According to the criminal complaint, the apprehension of Howard and Robinson occurred after two victims of a Nov. 10 robbery in the 300 block of West Harmony Street came to the police station on Nov. 13 and told detectives that they attempted to retrieve their stolen Samsung phone by dialing its number. The male who answered said they could get the phone returned for $150, the complaint said.
Working with detectives, the victims immediately set up a rendezvous at the post office in the 200 block of Chestnut Street, the complaint said. Before the exchange took place, the victims identified the two men present as the robbers, and Howard and Robinson were apprehended, the complaint said. Howard had the stolen Samsung in his pocket, the complaint said.
The complaint said that Howard also acknowledged the assault of a woman near the “Flats” the same night of the Samsung theft. He said they grabbed her purse but she wouldn’t let go, the complaint said, adding that “they dragged her out into the street, but the woman held on” and they fled, the complaint said. He said he participated in “four to five other robberies in Coatesville in the last two to three weeks,” the complaint said.
During the investigation, detectives said that the “crew of actors preyed on susceptible victims in each robbery that was committed” and moved quickly from the west end of the city to the east end on Sunday, Nov. 10, a news release said. The release said the Nov. 10 incidents “were not isolated, and that this crew has been involved with a crime spree that has spread, affecting other surrounding townships.”
Police Chief Jack Laufer said investigators are still working to determine the scope of the robberies as well as the attempted robberies. Anyone who may have come in contact with the defendants is asked to contact police at 610-384-2300.
A few years ago the only way to learn of muggings and armed robberies of stores in Coatesville was word of mouth. Only a few stores in Coatesville have not been robbed.
Nearby police departments issued press reports, The Coatesville PD did not. If someone was shot it brought the District Attorney here and the press.
Shortly after Cheif Laufer started we began to have police reports from the Coatesville PD. We have more crime reported in the press but not more crime.
Violent crime was much, much worse during the reign of the infamous “Bloc of Four” city council. Coatesville was a lawless drug zone during the “Bloc of Four” times. Sometimes I had to wait in traffic until a street drug sale was finished. There were gunshots almost every day. Many people stayed away from outside walls of their homes to avoid the bullets that came at almost any time of day. But if you didn’t live here and talked to people you wouldn’t know. I think that because there was no news of crime the “Bloc of Four” got away with cutting Coatesville’s PD by about 1/2.
We had one officer on duty per shift. Coatesville police were constantly being assisted by nearby township police.
I believe arsonists flourished here because of the Bloc of Four’s police cut backs. When Gov. Rendell woke up City Manager Harry Walker, from one of his many drunken stupors, on a Sunday morning and demanded that he declare an emergency so the State Fire Marshal & ATF could come in to stop the arsons; things began to change. Police looking for arsonists stopped white people coming into Coatesville and put a crimp into Coatesville’s drug business. The nationwide publicity got us a reform city council and eventually a really good police chief.
I know what it’s like to live in a town with a government owned by violent drug dealers. A city government that does not want the outside world to know that drug dealers control their town.
I appreciate knowing we have a robust and effective police force. And with the police press reports our government officials can’t say they “see no evil”.
The Coatesville Times has become a tabloid. Minus the poor writing and editing, the paper has become a police blotter and scandal-oriented paper. It is no doubt that the Coatesville Times has a healthy relationship with the Brandywine Health Foundation because it is the only entity it reports good news about. The Coatesville Times has gained currency about the demise of four black boys. Kathy Shea’s mention of the boys’ troubled background made me chuckle. Not because it was good to read about unwed, unemployed expectant fathers, but that she took the role of social worker. She is a savior, like the editor, I guess (I am still in stitches that the editor’s wife can submit an editorial about dentists in New Orleans because it has no bearing on Coatesville troubles). This tabloid has lost a reader, but I am sure plenty will come because it is now as anti-Coatesville as the Daily Local and its editors have become as opinionated as Amos and Andy.
The Times does not create the news, and while it’s unfortunate when crimes occur, we report on them. But at the same time, we are always looking for good news to balance the negative, which is never difficult to find. Ironically, many citizens regarded the arrests of four robbery suspects as good news, the result of positive police work. In choosing to focus on the negative, this concerned citizen apparently missed the story about students being honored for a collaboration of the Bridge Academy and Art Partners Studio in Coatesville or the local teens taking advantage of a fire-safety course at the South Coatesville Public Training campus or the story about the new flag retirement box for county residents. We could list more if we went back more than a week…
These four are not the usual suspects. They must have been nobody thug kids trying to get involved in the criminal world.