Trio Of Bandits Robs Shell Station

By Andrew Gorosko

Three robbers made off with an unspecified amount of money from Newtown Shell Service at 67 Church Hill Road early on the morning of Saturday, July 26, after one of the three assailants assaulted the male gas station attendant there with a baseball bat .

Police have linked that armed robbery to another armed robbery, which took place at an Exxon gas station on North Main Street in Danbury about 40 minutes later.

Newtown police said that at 2:14 am they responded to a hold-up alarm, which was triggered at the Shell station at the intersection of Church Hill Road and Edmond Road, near Exit 10 of Interstate 84.

On arriving, police learned that the unidentified station attendant had just been the victim of armed robbery and assault.

Police said three males wearing masks and various facial coverings had entered the gas station. One of the men struck the attendant several times with a baseball bat, as the other two men stole money and cigarettes from the sales counter, police said. One of the assailants carried a handgun, according to police.

Following the robbery, the three criminals fled the gas station and went into the parking lot of an adjacent business, from which they then apparently fled in a vehicle.

Police said the unidentified injured gas station attendant was taken to Danbury Hospital for treatment of head, arm, and leg injuries, after which he was released.

At about 2:53 am July 26, Danbury police learned of a similar robbery at an Exxon station on North Main Street there, near an I-84 exit, Newtown police said.

Newtown and Danbury police are investigating. Newtown police called in state police for aid in investigating the Shell station robbery. State police collected evidence at the crime scene on July 26.

Newtown police ask anyone with information about the Shell station robbery to contact them at 426-5841, or at the police tip line at 270-8888.

The last armed robbery in Newtown occurred in at a home in Hawleyville last September. The man who committed that robbery then led police on a automobile chase on westbound I-84 into New York State, where he was later caught.