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View Full Version : Airport security employees hold up store.


Cyclic Hotline
8th Mar 2002, 22:58
Two Suspects in Hostage-Taking ID'd . .Fri Mar 8, 6:30 AM ET . .. .VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. (AP) - Two of five people arrested in connection with a botched robbery attempt at a Staples store have been identified as security guards at nearby Kennedy International Airport.. .. .Danita Brown, 22, and Kevin Grant, 23, were employed by Haynes Security, a private company that contracts with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said Port Authority Sgt. Eugene Leary. The Port Authority operates the airport.. .. .Dozens of police and emergency services officers surrounded the store during a nine-hour standoff that began at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday. Twelve employees were trapped inside the store, some held as hostages and others hiding throughout the store.. .. .The employees were freed in two groups late Wednesday and early Thursday.. .. .Grant was arrested when he tried to leave the store, telling police he had gone in to buy a clipboard. Brown, who police believe was acting as a lookout, was arrested in a car in the parking lot.. .. .Two other suspects, Damion Taylor, 18, and Kevin Affoon, 23, were found hiding in the store after the hostages had left the building.. .. .A former Staples employee was charged with helping the other suspects attempt to rob the store. Clement Benedict, who had been fired from his job at the Long Island store two weeks ago, was arrested at his Brooklyn home, Nassau County police said.. .. .Benedict, 21, is accused of giving the suspects information about the store's safe, money and alarm system, and providing them with a diagram of the store. He was charged with criminal facilitation and conspiracy.. .. .Grant, Taylor and Affoon were charged with robbery, burglary, criminal use of a firearm and kidnapping. Brown faces all the same charges other than kidnapping.. .. .The five suspects are expected to be arraigned Friday.