Photo by John Wilcox
Thanks to Boston officer Edward Boylan’s keen eye, armed robbery suspect Leonard Thompson is in custody.
Armed suspect nabbed after tourist robbery
A hold-up suspect swigging a bottle of top-shelf brandy, carrying crack and packing a pistol in his belt slipped past Boston police officer Edward Boylan once - but not twice.
The veteran cop said he was furious for not pouncing on the thug soon after the man allegedly robbed two tourists from Ohio at gunpoint, police say, getting away with $160. Boylan circled back seizing on his second chance.
This 40-year-old officer shared his story of catching a break on the beat with the Herald’s Joe Dwinell, admitting he was more nervous about last night’s performance with the Boston Police Gaelic Column than Wednesday night’s arrest.
I was working District 11 (Dorchester) over near District 6 (South Boston) and the call came over the radio for a robbery suspect and I thought he might come in our direction. I then noticed a guy walking like nothing happened.
Then someone said over the radio they had someone at Target. It wasn’t the guy! My partner (Officer James Lacroix) and I started back . . . we were both mad at each other for not grabbing him the first time. We should have stayed with this guy. The description was just perfect. Police, it turns out, had an image of the suspect, Leonard J. Thompson, 43, of Roxbury, on surveillance video from the Target store in the South Bay Mall, police said. He was caught on camera soon after the reported robbery outside the Marriott Hotel in South Boston.
He probably felt he was free and clear. Just walking the streets free and clear, but he didn’t have time to do anything.
We spotted him trying to get into a minivan and I jumped out grabbing both of his hands and told him he fit the description of a robbery and just then Jimmy felt his waist and asked ‘What’s this?’
‘It’s liquor,’ he said but Jimmy said ‘(Expletive) it’s not!’ It was a gun tucked under his waist. He tried to push us off and we pushed him back on the car. The Bowdoin Street Safe Team was also there in 30 seconds.
It was a struggle.
We missed him because he was wearing a multi-colored hat and the suspect was supposed to be wearing a dark hat. But the hat was reversible.
We found him. It took only 20 minutes but we found him on the intersection of Bowdoin and Dever streets (just after 9 p.m.). He still had most of the money on him and he said he bought an ‘expensive bottle’ of brandy.
We pulled out his gun, crack and a crack pipe and brought him back to the hotel where the two guests from Ohio ID’d him.
There’s a lot of boredom on this job, but sometimes it gets exciting. Thompson was arraigned yesterday and ordered held on $50,000 bail.
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