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Boston cop charged with armed holdup of Roslindale gas station

Michael T. Jones, 44, of Dorchester, used his service handgun to stick up the Best of Boston gas station at Washington and Albano streets shortly before 4 this afternoon, police say.

Jones, a patrolman assigned to District E-18 in Hyde Park, was placed on administrative leave pending termination, according to a Boston Police Department statement. Jones, who had been on the force since 1988, was charged with one count of armed robbery, one count of armed assault with intent to rob and two counts of assault by means of a dangerous weapon.

The Herald reports Jones used his Glock gun for the stick-up - and that he had not reported for work since Jan. 2, when he called in sick.

Police report arresting Jones about an hour after the holdup, thanks to reports from witnesses, who were able to provide a license-plate number that led police to Jones's Dorchester home - where they found him in the front seat of his car, and clothing matching that reported by witnesses in the back seat.

"The internal investigation on this case is well underway and the punishment will be aggressive and certain," police Commissioner Ed Davis said. "It is reprehensible when an officer violates the law that he is entrusted to uphold and I will not stand for it. This department will continue to remain steadfast in its efforts to protect and serve the citizens of our city with absolute integrity.”

Around 7 p.m., the station was still blocked off with police tape, there were a couple of cruisers and uniformed officers and a number of detectives, including one loading a long metal box into a Crime Scene Investigation SUV.

Best of Boston in more peaceful times:

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Comments

http://www.bpdnews.com/2008/01/post_15.html

"...Boston Police took suspect into custody and he was then positively identified as the suspect involved in the armed robbery. The suspect identified as Boston Police Officer Michael T. Jones was arrested and charged with one count of Armed Robbery, one count of Armed Assault with Intent To Rob and two counts of Assault by Means of a Dangerous Weapon by way of firearm."

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According to the story in today's Globe, he should've joined the fire dept and gone out on a disability leave. No need to hold up gas stations after that.

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A cop? This is a strange world, indeed; gotta be a lot more to the story. Thanks for posting that; I've updated the post.

That's my wife's favorite gas station, in part because they pump the gas (she hates doing that), in part because she's friendly with the owner, with whom she sometimes exchanges pleasantries in Arabic (he's from Lebanon).

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I think that when Mike Jones robbed the gas station he was making a statement, he was protesting the situation in the middle east that has led to the high price of gas.

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You've must be reading too much Michell McPhee as of late. You seem to have picked up her use of the meaningless term "Glock service revolver". She's notorious for using that one.

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That's what they wrote. What do I know from guns? What's wrong with that phrase (and I ask because I really don't know)?

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I'd be guessing... a glock takes a clip of bullets in the stock (handle) of the gun, a revolver has a cyclinder with bore holes for six? bullets.

What's his problem depression, drug abuse, gambling? This is a guy who made a really bad decision knowing exactly what would follow.

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A Glock is a autoloader. When its fired, it uses the recoil energy to eject the round in the chamber, and load another round from the internal magazine so its ready to fire. Revolvers, on the other hand, store their ammunition in a cylinder. When you pull the trigger, a mechanism uses that force to move the next round in the cylinder under the hammer, just before releasing the hammer and igniting the round.

If you're not sure, it's safest to just use "handgun."

;)

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They had corrected it by the time I read the article.

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It's at the bottom left of page B1. I think a Boston police officer holding up a gas station at gunpoint deserves a little more play than that. Surely it's more important and locally relevant than, say, "MTV wants digital army to bring back the buzz" ?

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They are eternally afraid that if they mess with the BPD, the streets around their building will get ticketed every hour on the hour.

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I'm betting they just got beat on the story. Historically, the Herald has been the more cop-friendly paper, so it makes sense that BPD would give them a head start on reporting it and force the Globe to fit it into the post-Pring-Wilson budget.

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The Herald had something up last night; boston.com nothing until they posted today's paper. I see they did post a story about something else on their hidden breaking-news page at 7:41 p.m., so it's not like there was nobody in the newsroom when the police issued their statement on the case around the same time (and I got lucky, in the sense that I went out to get some Chinese food and, while waiting for it, went for a walk and saw the station all crime-scene'd up).

To be fair, in general, boston.com has been doing a decent enough job with breaking news on that page; although they certainly seem to be doing their darnedest to keep it hidden (the link to it is buried on the home page, it's not on the "Breaking News, Local News" page at all).

But yeah, especially given all the coverage they've been giving ne'er-do-wells in the fire department - and given all the ne'er-do-wells in the police department - you'd think they'd be all over this (and maybe they are and tomorrow's front page will have a story about the troubled life of Patrolman Jones).

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Bad cop, no doughnut!

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...yet another reason why those warrantless searches by plainclothes officers is a bad idea. Somebody needs to go search their bedrooms ((shaking head))

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