WESTFIELD – A man who allegedly menaced a convenience store clerk with a knife during a daylight robbery earlier this month has been arrested.
City police reported Tuesday afternoon that a suspect, Nicholas J. Rudzik, 19, of 1068 Shoemaker Lane, Feeding Hills, was arrested after he came to the station about an unrelated matter and stayed for a second interview regarding a Feb. 1 robbery at the Getty Mart convenience store at 278 Elm Street.
On that day, the store clerk had called police at 1:50 p.m. to report that the store had been robbed by a white male suspect who fled toward the nearby railroad right-of-way.
The clerk said that a robber who had worn a bandana across his face had come behind the counter of the store and had brandished scissors or some other sharp instrument while demanding that she put the money from the cash register into a bag he provided.
She said that the man also demanded her cell phone before he fled.
The woman said that she went outside after the man left the store and borrowed a phone to call police from a contractor working nearby.
Police working with a K-9 unit searched the railroad embankment and report the dog established a track but later lost it in the Arnold Street area.
However, a black cap and jacket which matched the description of the clothes the robber had been wearing were found on the right-of-way.
Police reported that the investigating officers had discovered an item in the jacket found on the embankment which led them to a store in the city. There, their investigation encouraged them to take a closer look at Rudzik who had been interviewed shortly after the robbery.
On Tuesday, Rudzik, who has worked as a barker for a Main Street tax preparation service while draped as Lady Liberty, came to the station to complain that a tax form provided by his employer was stolen by a former co-worker.
Det. Susan Figy spoke with Rudzik and advised him to contact the IRS to get a duplicate copy of the form which has no monetary value. She also delayed Rudzik while Det. Todd Edwards, the lead investigator into the robbery, returned to the station.
Edwards reports that when he confronted Rudzik with the evidence developed from the item found in the jacket and other evidence which had been developed during the month, Rudzik confessed to the crime and explained how he had threatened the clerk with a knife.
Rudzik was arrested for robbery while armed and masked Tuesday afternoon.
He was arraigned in Westfield District Court on a charge of armed and masked robbery Wednesday and was held in lieu of $10,000 cash bail pending a March 29 hearing.
Rudzik is expected to be indicted for the crime in superior court as the law under which he was arraigned, Chapter 265, Section 17 of the Massachusetts General Laws, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of “not less than five years”, a sentence well in excess of the two and a half-year maximum sentence which may be imposed in district court.
