NEW YORK — Optimism was in short supply Wednesday for two ex-cons busted in a three-borough, two-hour armed crime spree — despite one suspect’s bold prediction of a short stay behind bars.
Suspects Alvin Velez, 34, and Carlos Perez, 24, remained in custody pending a Manhattan Federal Court appearance after robbing 13 people at gunpoint during the wild rampage inside a stolen minivan, with the younger suspect boasting after his arrest that he would be released on bail within 24 hours.
The two reputed drug dealers faced federal Hobbs Act charges for robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and a gun charge, according to court documents. Perez was also a member of the 280 Gang, a subset of the Crips, police said, and both suspects were free despite multiple arrests while on parole.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the oft-arrested duo both had lengthy rap sheets with a combined 20 prior arrests. Velez was on parole for a 2013 attempted murder conviction, while Perez had nine previous bust including his own attempted murder charge.
“You see how violent they are,” said Essig. “They shouldn’t be out on the street, Been arrested numerous times ... Steal a car at gunpoint, ride through three boroughs pointing guns at people. Pistol-whipping people.”
The case went to federal court so law enforcement could get “the biggest bang for the buck” with federal charges, and was unrelated to the suspect’s braggadocio about bail, Essig said.
“You wonder why crime is at elevated levels?” asked Essig. “Because of this stuff.”
Perez punched a 79-year-old man in the face just two months ago and Velez was arrested five times since his November 2021 parole, according to police.
NYPD helicopter footage shows the suspects crashing the minivan near Cedar Avenue and West 179th Street in University Heights in the Bronx around 4 a.m. on Tuesday.
Velez was arrested at the crash scene to end a police manhunt for the pair, the video shows. Perez — a fast moving figure on the night-vision video — is seen running down the block and hopping a fence. Cops chased him into a building a few blocks away.
The gun used in the robberies was found in the van’s glove compartment, police said.
The black-clad duo’s crime spree started in Queens just before 1 a.m. Tuesday when they rolled up in a white Toyota minivan and robbed two women on Alstyne Avenue near 104th Street in Corona, fleeing with two cellphones and a necklace, police said.
A short time later, the pair robbed two people of their cash and a cellphone at the Woodside Motel on Queens Boulevard near 65th Street, cops said.
The crooks then drove to Brooklyn, where they held up a man on North 11th Street and Wythe Avenue in Greenpoint at 1:45 a.m. before going back to Queens and holding up six people at an outdoor dining shed in Jackson Heights about 20 minutes later, cops said.
Their last two heists were in Manhattan, where they robbed a worker in a food truck outside Washington Square Park at 2:40 a.m., then snatched a bag with personal property off a woman at Seaman Avenue and West 204th Street in Inwood at 3:10 a.m., police said.
None of the robbery victims was hurt.
Investigators believe the duo were robbing anyone they could find on the street for quick cash and valuables and were planning to continue their spree in the Bronx when they crashed, police said.
“Nothing happened. I didn’t do it,” Perez shouted to reporters as he was walked out of the 110th Precinct stationhouse in Corona by cops late Tuesday. “Ya heard? Ya heard? I’m innocent.”
Velez twice made the same claim of innocence.
Velez was paroled in November 2021 after serving seven years in state prison for an attempted murder in Manhattan, records show. Before that, he was conditionally released by parole in February 2013 after serving more than a year for a weapons conviction, also in Manhattan.
Perez, according to records, was paroled in October 2020 after serving more than a year for a Bronx weapons conviction.
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