What to Know
- Police had been searching for suspected armed robbers in Rahway, New Jersey, since last Friday
- At the time, SWAT teams surrounded an apartment building where the suspects were believed to be, but a raid turned up nothing
- On Monday, police got one of the suspects -- he tried to hide in an attic but fell through the ceiling and into officers' arms
A 19-year-old man who sparked an hourslong standoff after he allegedly robbed a woman in New Jersey last Friday was arrested Monday when he fell through a ceiling and into a police officer's arms at his home, police said.
Officers from the Rahway Police Department and the Union County Emergency Response Team had staked out a home on the 100 block of West Main Street Friday as they searched for four suspects in the armed robbery. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.
The suspects weren't located at the time but Rahway police on Monday went to the Bryant Street home of one suspect, Edson Dorsainvil, and spotted him walking in.
Dorsainvil tried to hide in an attic crawl space as officers went into the home, police said, but he fell through the living room ceiling, right into the officers' waiting arms.
Dorsainvil is being held at Union County Jail on first-degree armed robbery and related weapons possession charges.
Anyone with more information is asked to contact Rahway Police at 732-388-1553.
As police swarmed the area last Friday, roads around the Union County Arts Center on Irving Street were closed, and a business owner told News 4 that she was ordered to stay inside.
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"They have just all the streets blocked off, you have all the cops, the fire department, the Rahway emergency service, Linden, Rahway police," the business owner said.
Terrified neighbors hid out in their homes and broadcast the police response live on Facebook.
"I heard the police bullhorn," said Kevin Caldwell. "Ask the people, 'If you're inside the building, come out now.'" But after busting down the door of an apartment with a battering ram and throwing in a flash grenade, police didn't find the people they were looking for — just tenants of the building, according to the source.
