Another Neighbor Robbed at Gunpoint

Our neighbor was robbed at gun point outside of the NFTA LaSalle Station, Wednesday evening, on his way home from work.

NFTA and Brown administration both FAILed our neighbor on this one.

• Brown’s FAILure to staff E District with the resources they need to police this area properly.
• FAILure of the gun buyback program. Nothing like a gun in the face to get the point across that there are WAY too many guns on the streets of Buffalo, especially in the hands of idiot teen gang banger wannabes.
• Brown’s FAILure to even remotely deliver on his election eve Santa act.
• Brown’s FAILure to develop this area into more than a humongous parking lot (always more than half empty even at the busiest of times). He had the chance to do this but opted for a land grab that would enrich his real-estate buddies, only to have that FAIL too.
• FAILure of the NFTA to patrol the LaSalle adequately. This is the second violent incident there in the last month.

Our neighbor’s story in his own words:

A long barreled gun of a thief was pointed near my chest in the parking lot behind the LaSalle Subway Station Parking Lot at about 7:40 PM last Wednesday evening, October 21st, 2009, as I was making my way toward the Linear Park walkway on my way home after having worked only a couple of hours later than usual downtown that evening. The lead thief brandishing that curious gun had initially passed me at some distance proceeding at a fast pace in the other direction with a companion, who would later also produce a gun after their robbery of me had succeeded. Both were very young men, appearing to me to be in their late teens. As they passed me, they seemed determined to get somewhere in the opposite direction than I was proceeding. By the angle at which they approached me, it seemed they must have been coming up from the Shoshone Park steps to the LaSalle Station Parking Lot. They were moving not so much toward me as beyond me in the direction I had left, with some breadth between us. They seemed to be taking no cognizance of me at all. A moment before one had landed to one side in front of me, blocking my path with his gun, I had heard the other say to him something to the effect of “Now show us what you can do”. I thought nothing of what I had overheard until startled by the context my robbers had created in assuming their roles. My lead thief’s companion said and did little during the robbery; but he stood menacingly behind me slightly to the same side. Supported by the occasional echoes of his companion, the lead thief, who may have been more a novice in a test of initiation as I thought at the time, he demanded first my money and then my cell phone. At each demand, I told them I had nothing to give, conjecturing they might be put off and that I could move on. The gun looked strange to me; I was not sure at first how real it was. When the lead thief waved it at me in agitation and threatened to frisk me, I thought the gun might be homemade and that the better part of wisdom was to yield to their demands. At their successive commands, I first gave them some cash and then a cell phone. Although they were demanding it all, I began to turn away from them toward the back entrance way to the apartment building running alongside the LaSalle Station Parking Lot. I repeatedly pleaded with them that since they got some considerable cash and a cell phone that they leave me alone. As the lead thief started to run off with his booty, his companion lingered a moment, hit me on the back of my head with the butt of his gun and ran to catch up with his co-thief, evidently not wanting to face me alone even though armed. I was not injured by the hasty blow.

A minute and half later, when my escape had been made good and I was with people at the apartment building, I phoned 911. They took a detailed report from me over the phone. A Buffalo Police Car appeared in about 7 minutes. The officer took me at my request to the scene of the crime and so gathered further information from me about what had transpired. Another officer pulled alongside to relate that they had stopped two suspects fitting the description I had given but that they were neither armed nor had my cell phone. Earlier, I had been asked whether I could identify them. I unhesitatingly replied “yes,” but later qualified that in saying I would not want to misidentify any innocent person, expressing confidence I would be able to identify them if found together. At that, the officer then challenged me saying “In other words, you are saying you cannot identify them”. I asserted that was not what I was suggesting. In any case, I had not that night nor at any time since been called to identify any suspect or suspects. The Buffalo Police Officer who arrived at my call kindly took me home.

The following day, an aide to City Council President David Franczyk called the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Police on my behalf, since the crime occurred on NFTA property. An NFTA detective finally reached me. I gave him a report over the phone and later in person at his office. The NFTA appears to be actively investigating the robbery.

Although I have left a message by phone on the recording machine for the Detectives with the Buffalo City Police Department, as of this writing I have not yet heard from them.