WINSLOW — A local man was arrested early Thursday morning after he allegedly robbed two people in an apartment at gunpoint, fleeing with cash before police stopped his car nearby.
The man, Mark “Anthony” Kennedy, 47, of 23 Clinton Ave., Winslow, was charged with two counts of class A robbery; two counts of class B criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon; possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, class B; theft, class E; burglary, class A; and obstructing report of a crime, class D.
Bail was set at $465,000 on the most serious robbery charges, and Kennedy was being held at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta.
Police first received a 911 call at 12:56 a.m. from an apartment at 25 Halifax St., according to a news release Thursday from Winslow police Chief Shawn O’Leary. A man, identified by the victims as Kennedy, had entered the unlocked apartment, shown a firearm and threatened to shoot a man and a woman inside, O’Leary said.
“He just walked right in,” O’Leary said in an interview. “He pointed a firearm at the occupants, telling them something like, ‘Don’t make me shoot.'”
O’Leary declined to identify the type of firearm used, citing the open investigation.
The suspect then fled with cash and other items.
The two tenants, who were not injured, went to a neighbor’s apartment to call police, also providing a description of the suspect’s car.
Winslow officers were already in the area on patrol when the call came in and were able to find the reported car, a Ford Taurus, on nearby Monument Street within minutes, conducting “a high-risk felony stop,” O’Leary said.
Kennedy was arrested without incident and a woman in the vehicle who was a passenger was detained until police determined she wasn’t involved in the robbery, O’Leary said.
O’Leary said he didn’t know Kennedy’s criminal history yet but confirmed he’s a convicted felon from New York City.
The incident, which is still under investigation, is not believed to be drug-related, O’Leary said.
The chief said police have responded previously to reports of criminal incidents in the area of the tenement building, but he called the robbery “very unusual” for Winslow.
“But it’s a sign of the times, so unfortunately it is what we have to deal with,” O’Leary said. “We do have an influx of people from out of state coming in.”
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