Man Charged With Robbing 3 Women At Gunpoint
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) – A 34-year-old Bloomington man has been charged by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office for robbing three women in Bloomington and Edina in December.
Tony Antoinne Benjamin was charged with three counts of aggravated robbery and one count of kidnapping in connection with the incidents. He was already booked in the Scott County Jail on an unrelated offense.
According to a criminal complaint, Benjamin approached a woman on the night of Dec. 6 who was walking from the Southdale Mall in Edina to her car in the parking lot. He approached her, told her he had a gun and was going to rob her. He forced her into the passenger seat of her car, tied her hands with zip ties and took her purse.
Benjamin then drove her to an ATM machine and demanded her PIN number to take money from her account. When he was unsuccessful at that, he drove her back to the mall and told her not to go anywhere for at least 15 minutes, according to the complaint. The woman then drove home and contacted police.
Benjamin was also charged with a Dec. 5 robbery at a Bloomington grocery store where he followed a woman from the store to her home. When she got home and out of her car, he pointed a gun at her and demanded her purse. Authorities eventually recovered the purse, but all the money inside was gone, according to the complaint.
On Dec. 8, Benjamin grabbed a woman as she got to her car after leaving a coffee shop. He pointed a gun at her neck and demanded her purse. The woman struggled with Benjamin, but he eventually got the purse and fled the scene.
Benjamin later admitted to police that he committed all three robberies, but told police he never had a gun and just had a piece of metal that was shaped like a gun.
If convicted, Benjamin faces up to 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine on each robbery charge.
