Fayetteville police crack robbery spree stretching from NC to NY

Fayetteville police have spent four months piecing together evidence following a Sept. 15 robbery on Summertime Drive. Darlene Ransom said she had just pulled into her garage when a man pointed a gun in her face and stole her purse, which contained gift cards and checks from her tenants.

Police were able to obtain some information after a gift card was used at a local restaurant, and more details were gathered when one of the stolen checks was cashed in Durham. Investigators followed leads back to Fayetteville and to Brooklyn, N.Y., interviewed possible suspects and conducted searches.

The trail linked to another home invasion in the Summertime Road neighborhood in which intruders kicked in a back door and terrorized a family, police said.

But the key piece of evidence came from a traffic stop in Dunn before the robbery spree ever started.

Dunn police stopped a vehicle on Interstate 95 with four occupants who lived in the Barrington Place Apartments in Fayetteville, and they were charged with unrelated felonies, investigators said. That vehicle was later linked to the suspects in the Fayetteville robbery.

"That's going to be our suspect pool for these robberies," said Lt. Mike Geske of the Fayetteville Police Department. "Inside that vehicle, we've located miscellaneous fraud uttering devices – computers, blank checks, card readers, weapons, drugs. You name it, we found it."

Police have taken out warrants charging Naquan Braddy, 20, with Ransom's robbery and charging Braddy, Anthony Barr, 18, and Emmanuel Jordan, 23, with numerous offenses, including robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy. All three are in custody in New York.

Investigators plan to travel to New York to bring the trio back to Fayetteville, and they said they expect more charges to be filed as the men are linked to similar crimes.