Police search for gunman in fifth Nassau gas station holdup since Jan. 26
Nassau police are looking for a masked, gun-toting man who robbed a Jericho gas station Sunday morning -- the fifth armed robbery at a Nassau gas station in the last few weeks, police said.
The latest robbery, in which the thief took an "undetermined amount" of cash from the Shell gas station at 460 Jericho Tpke. about 10:23 a.m., mirrors the armed robbery of a Hess gas station on Jericho Turnpike Friday night, police said.
In both cases, a masked man of a similar description entered when no customers were in the store, displayed a silver handgun and fled with cash, police said. No one was hurt in either of the holdups.
No arrests have been made in any of the robberies, including the Jan. 28 killing of a gas station attendant who was found shot behind the counter of a Jericho BP station in what police said was possibly a botched robbery.
Hany Awad, 56, of Levittown, was shot once in the torso, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A police spokesman Sunday said he could not say whether all five of the recent robberies, stretching from Jan. 26 to Sunday, were connected.
However, police have apparently connected two of the cases, issuing a Crime Stoppers bulletin last week for two armed robberies of BP gas stations just days before Awad's killing.
On Jan. 26, a masked man fired a single shot into the counter of the BP station in New Hyde Park after demanding money. Thirty-five minutes later, a masked man of a similar description demanded cash and fired a shot into a wall inside the Thomaston BP station.
A police spokesman said that in both cases the station attendant "delayed or refused" to turn over money. He would not say how much money was taken.
Nassau County Crime Stoppers is seeking tips in all of the cases and can be reached at 800-244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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