Dashawn Bethea, 24, was charged with numerous weapons offenses, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Trenton Police SUV speeds up East State Street on Wednesday, July 31, 2013. file
Michael Mancuso/The Times
To purchase this and other photos, visit http://TimesofTrenton.zenfolio.com Dashawn Bethea, 24, was caught while trying to scale a fence about a block away from the restaurant on the 700 block of South Broad Street, Lt. Mark Kieffer said. Bethea was allegedly carrying a semi-automatic handgun with a 22-round extended magazine that carried 12 body armor-piercing bullets, which police recovered and seized.
Officers Israel Bonia and Kevin Starkey were sent to the restaurant around 11:25 p.m. with a description of two suspects called in by an anonymous person.
“They got information the two … were looking to rob a Chinese food delivery guy and one was armed,” Kieffer said yesterday.
Once the two officers entered the store, they ordered both suspects not to move and to show their hands.
“Bethea stood up from the booth and attempted to walk past,” Kieffer said.
Police tried to restrain him but he broke free, pulled the handgun from his waistband and held it in the air as he ran out of the restaurant and across the street, Kieffer said.
One of the officers yelled “gun” to alert the patrons of the restaurant, and both ran after Bethea as he fled onto the 600 block of South Broad Street.
Bethea discarded the handgun behind a building, then tried to climb over a fence but he was caught by Officers Pedro Perez and William Molnar-Sanchez, police said.
Bethea was charged with numerous weapons offenses, including unlawful possession of a high-capacity magazine and unlawful possession of body-armor piercing bullets. He was also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The man in the booth with Bethea was not arrested because he did not commit a crime, Kieffer said.
In 2008, Mercer County sheriff’s officers arrested Bethea on Stuyvesant Avenue when they allegedly found him and another man with heroin.
Crack cocaine and marijuana were also seized from the house after a search by a county K-9, officials said at the time.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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