Dwight Halls EDISON — Township police arrested a Piscataway man and his female accomplice less than an hour after a hold-up at Investors Bank in Wick Plaza.
Dwight Halls, 23, of Piscataway, was charged with robbery, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes and making terroristic threats. He is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick on $150,000 bail.
His alleged accomplice, Khaliah Mc- Gruder, 20, of Plainfield, is being held on $75,000 bail at the county corrections center, charged with eluding police and conspiracy to commit robbery.
The incident began at 12:15 p.m. on Oct. 15, when a man wearing a long, dark wig and hat entered the Investors Bank branch and handed a teller a note demanding cash, then jumped the counter and scooped up money into a bag before running outside to Wick Plaza’s parking lot, police said.
Off-duty Irvington police Sgt. Jamie Velez, who was outside at the time, saw the suspect run from the bank and cross the parking lot to a waiting black car driven by a woman. Thinking it appeared suspicious, Velez followed the car onto Route 1 and phoned the Edison police dispatch center, according to police.
Khaliah McGruder Velez gave Edison police a description of the car and its location on Route 1, enabling
Edison police Sgt. Thomas Lacik and officers Joseph Luistro, David Stern and Scot Sofield to locate it and arrest Hall and McGruder, police said.
According to police, as officers closed in on the suspects’ car, one of its occupants allegedly tossed the bag of money out a window, police said.
“Bad luck for these suspects — having an off-duty police sergeant witness their getaway led to these swift and successful arrests,” Police Chief Thomas Bryan said. “Thanks to police Sgt. Velez’s alertness and fine police work by Edison police officers and detectives, we may be able to close more than one bank robbery case.”
As the result of a follow-up investigation by police detectives Jeff Tierney and Sean Forker of Edison’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, Halls is also charged in connection with a May 28 armed robbery at the same Investors Bank branch, during which a black handgun was brandished.
Police said they believe Halls is also a suspect in a July hold-up at a Woodbridge bank, Tierney said. Further charges are pending the outcome of a continuing investigation by Edison detectives and agents from the FBI’s Somerset County office. Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to contact police Detective Jeff Tierney at 732-427-0472.