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Three men arrested for armed robberies

• Three people arrested Thursday may be linked to weekend robberies contracted to two Albany bars, authorities said.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Police have charged three men and are looking for a teenager who they believe have engaged in a series of armed robberies throughout the city over the last several weeks, authorities said Friday.

Alonzo Mingo, 19; Booker Sims, 20, and Nathaniel Wingfield, 20, were arrested Thursday and charged with armed robbery, financial transaction card fraud and kidnapping in connection with at least seven incidents over the past two to three weeks, detectives said Friday.

A fourth suspect, 17-year-old Dontay Barber, has yet to be arrested, police said.

Speaking from the APD’s “War Room,” Lt. Kendra Wilson said that the men would stalk users of automated teller machines and rob them of cash, jewelry and credit or debit cards after they left the ATMs.

“We were able to track them to banks and convenience stores around the city where they used the credit or debit cards and found a vehicle on surveillance footage that eventually lead us to the suspects,” Wilson said.

Detectives are still actively working the investigation and wouldn’t divulge many details about the crimes, saying only that they happened over the course several weeks and that they expect to make additional arrests in the case.

They did say, however, that they believe suspects were responsible for robberies of the Oglethorpe Lounge and Yesterday’s Lounge on Harding Street.

According to incident reports, Kimberly Apperson, 42, left the Oglethorpe Lounge where she bartended around 1 a.m. Sunday and noticed a vehicle following her. When she thought she had lost the vehicle, she went to her home on Lakeridge Drive.

As she approached her back door, she heard someone tell her to give him “the money from the club,” the incident report states. Apperson told police she turned around to see three armed men in masks, one of which was a bear mask.

The men took her purse and left once a dog began barking, according to the report.

The four victims from the Harding Street incident, which occurred at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, told police that three men armed with pistols and wearing masks, one of which was in a bear mask, approached them outside Yesterday’s Lounge and told them to put their hands on their vehicle and not turn around.

Apperson’s report only states that the bandits made off with the purse, which was valued at about $20, and does not indicate any of the purse’s contents. The report from the Harding Street incident indicates the men made off with $201 in cash and several insurance cards and wallets.

Wilson wouldn’t confirm if any of those charged were suspected of wearing the “bear” masks, but did say that in at least one of the incidents the suspects did conceal their faces.

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