Off-Duty Cop Helps Catch 3 Who Police Say Punched, Attempted to Rob Woman

An off-duty police officer followed and helped arrest three suspects who had just attempted to take cash from a woman leaving the White Flint Mall on Tuesday.

At about 5:48 p.m., police say they received a call for a woman screaming in the 5800 block of Nicholson Lane. They found out the 56-year-old victim had just left White Flint Mall and was walking when three suspects came up behind her and demanded cash.

Police say one of the suspects punched her in the head before fleeing when she started screaming.

The off-duty cop followed them to the White Flint Metro station. There, officers arrested Jalonte Malki Cole, 17, of the 1100 block of Sumner Road in Southeast D.C., Tywone Omid Sommers, 16, also of the 1100 block of Sumner Road in Southeast D.C. and a 15-year-old male of the 8400 block of Hamlin Street in Glenarden, who was charged as a juvenile.

Cole was charged as an adult with armed robbery, second-degree assault, conspiracy to commit both and concealing a dangerous weapon. Police say he was carrying a BB gun pistol in his waist band. Sommers was charged with armed robbery, second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit both and was released yesterday on bond. Cole is still being held on a $50,000 bond, according to police.

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