WESTFIELD – A Springfield man who walked away from a court-sponsored community corrections program allegedly told another worker he was “going to show him his .40-caliber” before he twice attempted armed-robbery-by-bluff and was arrested Friday afternoon.
City police responded at 10:26 a.m. to a complaint by a corrections crew supervisor that one member of the crew, Eddie Jenkins, 34, of 20 Searle Place, Springfield, had been engaged in an argument with another worker and had made the apparent threat to produce a gun before leaving the site where the crew was doing cleanup work for the Westfield Housing Authority.
The supervisor said that the man had returned and he was trying to keep his crew away from Jenkins in case he actually was armed.
Officer Harry Sienkiewicz responded and reports that a search of Jenkins, who stated that he was going to walk back to Springfield, revealed no firearms. He later reported that Jenkins, who he reported to be on
probation, “has an extensive criminal history (60 entries) dating back to 1993” as well as “two open cases for threatening out of Springfield District Court.”
Jenkins was later described by Judge Philip A. Contant who wrote that he “has an extensive record of convictions for crimes of violence, distribution of drugs, violations of restraining orders, B&Es, larcenies, robberies, etc.”
The supervisor told Sienkiewicz that he will submit a report about the incident to Jenkins’ probation officer.
The website for the Massachusetts Trial Court reveals that the Trial Court Community Service Program, which apparently brought the crew to the city to perform community service, is designed for offenders as “a condition of probation, parole, or prerelease”, as a “component of an intermediate sanction level at a community corrections center,” or as “a means for paying court costs, restitution, fines, or probation supervision fees.”
The website goes on to say that the program “addresses the purposes of sentencing by”, among other benefits, “securing the public safety by providing closely monitored community service work.”
Questions about the program posed at the probation office at Westfield District Court were referred to the director of communication for the office of the Commissioner of Probation in Boston, Coria Holland.
Holland, reached late in the day Monday, was found to be on vacation and was not familiar with the incident. Although she said that the program is not voluntary, she stopped short of saying that the participants are in custody while working in the program.
Jenkins came to police attention again Friday, about two hours after he walked away from the crew.
At 12:47 p.m., a caller reported to the emergency dispatcher that a clerk at the Main Street Walgreens store had given all the money in the register to an armed robber.
Minutes later, a caller from a nearby nail salon reported that a man had come into the salon claiming that he had a gun and that he was going to shoot somebody.
The description of the suspect from both callers matched and both callers said that no weapon was shown.
In both cases he left, on foot, without any money.
Back on the street, the suspect was spotted by Sienkiewicz, who detained the man he knew as Jenkins in the area of a nearby convenience store until he was positively identified by victims.
In his report, Sienkiewicz reports that the Walgreens clerk was flustered when the man she later identified as Jenkins “told her to open the cash drawer and give him the money so he could get back to his county” and her
reply was “What?”
Jenkins reportedly then walked away from the register and approached a responding assistant store manager before he started yelling “ain’t you gonna call police” over and over again.
Sienkiewicz reports that an employee of the nail salon said that “his right hand was behind his back like he had a gun” when he announced a holdup and “said that he had 36 rounds and was ready to empty the clip.” The woman said “she thought he was going to shoot her, she said that she was terrified, and that this was going to be her last day” but he again left without any money.
Jenkins was arrested for two charges of attempting to commit armed robbery.
He was held over the weekend at the police station and on Saturday threatened to commit suicide. A cell watch was initiated.
The shift supervisor consulted a representative of a pertinent social services agency who recommended that, since Jenkins had not been on his medication for more than three days, he be taken to Noble Hospital where he was evaluated and several medications were prescribed. He was not given medication for the weekend and police were advised that he would have to be taken to a hospital for administration of medication as needed.
On Monday Jenkins appeared for arraignment before Contant in Westfield District Court on two charges of attempting to commit a crime and his bail was set at $5,000.
He was held pending a July 18 hearing.
