The gunman accused of robbing a Northeast Washington video game store apologized to the workers before fleeing with hundreds of dollars in cash, later telling police that he needed the money to help his brother, according to charging documents.
The April 8 armed robbery didn’t start so politely.
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Police say 20-year-old Demarco Nathan Scott walked into Game Stop store in the 1500 block of Maryland Avenue NE, and pulled a silver handgun out from a black bag. He ejected the gun’s magazine to show the employees it had bullets and then reloaded the weapon. “So you know I’m not playing,” he told the workers, police said. The employees quickly emptied the cash registers of $564 and handed over the money.
The suspect took the cash and then said, “I’m in a real bad jam and I hope you don’t lose your jobs over this. I know that you have cameras.” A surveillance camera recorded the entire incident, and police used a still shot to produce a photo of the gunman. Police placed the gunman’s picture on a flier and distributed the fliers around the neighborhood and over the Internet. A person saw the photo and identified the man as Scott, police said.
But when police showed a photo spread to one of the employees, he was unable to identify Scott. The photo array wasn’t shown to the other worker.
Still, police said they had enough evidence to arrest Scott. After police picked up Scott at his home, he not only admitted to the Game Stop robbery but also confessed to robbing three other businesses in the area since March, according to the arrest report. Scott said he used the gun to rob a Subway sandwich shop, a liquor store and a carry-out restaurant. He explained that his brother was in trouble and needed money. The report didn’t identify the brother or say what kind of trouble he was in.
