A second Bronx suspect has been arrested in an August 2025 armed robbery at a Mount Vernon gas station that led to a shootout between New York City police and the other suspect, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.
Eric Boothe, 40, was taken into custody in Pennsylvania. He appeared Tuesday, Aug. 18, in White Plains federal court where U.S. Magistrate Judith McCarthy ordered him held without bond.
According to court documents, Boothe and Jamaire Robertson allegedly accosted an attendant at the Gulf station on Mount Vernon Avenue at gunpoint at about 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2025, pushing him up against a wall and taking more than $500 and his wallet before fleeing down South Bond Street.
They separated after going over a bridge at South 14th Avenue
near the Bronx border. NYPD officers were in the area and when they heard a description of the suspects they spotted Robertson running down Pearl Street. As they got out of their car, Robertson allegedly fired several shots at them and they returned fire. Nobody was hit and Robertson later told investigators the gun had gone off accidentally.
He initially got away to the back of a Pearl Street property where investigators later found a black Ruger 9mmpistol. Despite a heavy response from city, county, state and federal law enforcement he fled that property but was arrested later that day outside a building on East 242nd Street in the Bronx where video surveillance showed him returning an hour after the robbery.
According to court documents, that's where Robertson and Boothe had parked a car and grabbed guns before walking to the gas station shortly before the robbery.
Boothe managed to get further away, stopped using his phone, changed his financial and social media activity and relocated to the Poconos in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The FBI eventually linked him to another phone and a pizzeria in Tobyhanna, Penn. near where he was arrested.
In a news release, U.S Attorney Jamie McDonald and FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle, Jr. praised the investigative work that tracked Boothe down.
"No matter how long someone runs, we remain committed to pursuing those who endanger our communities,” Barnacle said in a statement.
A lawyer for Boothe could not immediately be identified.
Boothe is charged with Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and possessing and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Because he was convicted in 2016 of that firearms charge, if convicted of it again he faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison on top of any sentence he gets if convicted in the robbery, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The robbery charges each carry maximum prison terms of 20 years.
The same three charges are pending against Robertson.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Second suspect arrested in 2025 robbery at Mount Vernon gas station
