A gunman who stormed into a Brooklyn post office Monday afternoon, held a customer at gunpoint, and fired shots before fleeing on a moped has been taken into custody after crashing while leaving the scene of a second attempted robbery, police sources said.
Police said the trouble began around 1:13 p.m. on June 30 at a Midwood post office on Coney Island Avenue, where the suspect put a gun to the back of a 37-year-old woman — the only person in the lobby — and demanded money from postal employees.
As the tellers ran for safety, the man fired four shots at the door to the clerk’s area. One postal worker told amNewYork the suspect rifled through a register but fled the scene after an unsuccessful rummage.
“He did not get anything,” the postal employee said. “Everyone is shook up.”
The suspect, described as a male with a dark complexion wearing a blue helmet and blue backpack, fled the scene on a moped heading westbound on Coney Island Ave.
Roughly 20 minutes later, around 1:32 p.m., police believe the same individual attempted to rob a Pay-O-Matic check-cashing business on Utica Ave in East Flatbush. Nothing was stolen during that incident either.
As the suspect fled the second location, he crashed the moped and was taken into custody shortly afterward. A firearm was recovered at the scene, law enforcement sources said.
The suspect — whose identity has yet to be released — is currently being held at the NYPD’s 63rd Precinct and is reportedly uncooperative.
Following the initial post office incident, police closed the facility to the public while they collected ballistics evidence and reviewed surveillance footage.
The investigation remains ongoing.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said it was aware of the Midwood incident and “working diligently with our local law enforcement partners on this investigation. “
“The Postal Inspection Service takes matters involving the safety and well-being of Postal Service employees as a top priority,” a spokesperson said, encouraging anyone with information to call 877-876-2455 (say “Law Enforcement”) or contact them via X (formerly Twitter) at @PostalInspector.
