Crime & Safety

Forensic Evidence Leads to Robbery Charges

Charges stem from incident in July.

Thanks to the help of forensic science a Freehold Borough resident was arrested last week for his role in an armed robbery in July.

Lt. Michael Sweetman said just after midnight on July 9 three women and a man were leaving a local business in the area of Marcy and South Streets when they were approached by two suspects wearing dark clothes and masks while getting into a car.

Sweetman said at the time one of the men waived a gun at the victims demanding money and their purses. He said the man “angrily repeated the threat,” and was told by the second suspect to to "calm down."

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While the suspects were talking one of the passengers told the driver to leave the scene and she did. As the car left it caused the first suspect to lose his balance and fall to the ground but not before his hand touched the inside of the car window.

Ptl. Sam Hernandez was the first officer on the scene and was joined by Det. John Reiff who was able to “identify and lift several sets of fingerprints,” according to Sweetman. Those prints were sent to State Police Laboratory in Hamilton. The lab contact Det. Reiff last week and advised him the prints matched those of 35-year-old Freehold resident Luis Colon-Rosario.

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The results from the state lab were confirmed by forensics detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. As a result Colon-Rosario was charged with first degree robbery, second degree burglary and other weapons offenses.

Sweetman said Rosario-Colon was already incarcerated in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on unrelated charges and that his bail for the new offenses was set at $300,000 with no 10 percent option.

The investigation took more than four months but Sweetman said it was worth the wait to find one of the suspects. “This is an example of exceptional police work,” he said. “Forensics and technology are fantastic tools for law enforcement, but they are only as good as the detectives employing them. John, clearly, conducted a superb investigation.”

Sweetman said the investigation is continuing while the second suspect is still at large.



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