Silver Spring Man Pleads Guilty Of June Takoma Park Robbery

A Silver Spring man pled guilty Tuesday to a robbery committed in Takoma Park, Takoma Park Police said. 

Tony Victor Dickens, 20, pled guilty in Montgomery County Circuit Court and was sentenced to three years incarceration, all but 15 months suspended. His co-defendent, Jose Antonio Lopez, did not plead guilty and will stand trial.

On June 15, around 7:30 p.m., City police responded to a robbery in front of the Chevy Chase Bank in the 7600 block of New Hampshire Avenue. The victim had used the ATM and while walking to his vehicle in the parking lot he was approached by one of the subjects who demanded his money, police said.  A struggle ensued between the subject and victim at which time the subject took the money and fled from the parking lot on to Kirklynn Avenue.  There, the subject entered a red Nissan Maxima on the passenger side, which was parked facing the opposite direction on Kirklynn Avenue, and fled on Kirklynn Avenue toward Carroll Avenue.

The suspects fled after Montgomery County Police spotted a red Nissan Maxima that fit the description of the getaway vehicle. One of the suspects exited the vehicle in the Giant parking lot on Arliss Street and grabbed a purse from a woman there.  A Takoma Park Police Officer pursued the subject on foot.  The subject fled into the wooded area behind the apartment buildings located on Arliss Street.  The driver of the red Nissan Maxima also fled the area, police said.Despite the efforts of Takoma Park Police, Montgomery County Police, Montgomery County Police K-9 and Maryland State Police, the subjects were not apprehended.

Later on the same day, the Montgomery County Police SAT stopped the red Nissan Maxima at the intersection of Colesville Road at University Blvd.   The vehicle was registered to Lopez, who was driving the vehicle.  Lopez was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, police said.

On June 16, at around 2:50 p.m., a subject matching the description of the robbery suspect, later identified as Dickens, was observed walking in the 200 block of Harlequin Terrace.  Dickens was followed to the Exxon Station located at Randolph Road and Old Columbia Pike, in Silver Spring, where he was stopped by police.  Dickens was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, police said.