Police arrested a man wearing a mask from the movie “Scream” for allegedly robbing a jewelry story in a Massachusetts mall and putting it into lockdown Monday.
Police said Starlin Batista, 27, from Peabody, Massachusetts, walked into a Kay’s Jeweler’s at Northshore Mall at about 1 p.m., NBC Boston reported. (RELATED: Video Shows Car Owner Desperately Trying To Fight Off Four Would-Be Robbers)
JUST IN: A man in a “Scream” mask robbed a jewelry store at a Peabody mall, briefly putting the mall into lockdown, before being arrested across Route 128, police say. https://t.co/UyubvU1Xj3
— NBC10 Boston (@NBC10Boston) April 17, 2023
Police said, the suspect allegedly signaled he was armed and showed a note in his backpack that read, “Put everything in the bag. I’ll give you two minutes before I shoot. Don’t make a sound,” according to NBC Boston.
Later, police said an officer located near the mall’s access road saw Batista, chased the suspect as he allegedly sped away, and caught him near Northshore Road across from the mall, NBC Boston reported.
Batista will face charges of armed and masked robbery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the Peabody District Court Tuesday morning, NBC Boston reported.
Commercial burglaries in Boston rose 13.7% in 2022, from 313 incidents in 2021 to 356 in 2022, the Boston Herald reported. On April 17 alone, there were seven aggravated assaults, two vehicle thefts, and eight other forms of larceny in Boston, the Boston Police Department reported.