New Kensington police accuse man of stealing cane from elderly man, using it to smash his car window
New Kensington police accused a man of stealing a cane from a 75-year-old man with physical challenges and using it to smash the rear windshield of the 75-year-old’s car because he was rooting through a dumpster to gather metal cans.
Charles Darnell Jones, 48, of the 1900 block of Alcoa Drive in Arnold was charged with two counts of felony robbery along with tampering with evidence, theft and criminal mischief.
He is being detained in the Westmoreland County jail in lieu of a $100,000 cash bond and faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. on Aug. 25.
Police wrote in Jones’ arrest papers that a man from Kenneth Avenue in Arnold reported that he was gathering metal cans from a dumpster in the 1100 block of Fifth Avenue near the Central Towers apartment complex on Aug. 13 when a man wearing an orange shirt, later identified as Jones, approached him yelling that he didn’t belong there because it was “his place.”
The man told police that Jones said, “Leave or the next thing you’ll hear is your back window breaking,” the complaint said.
Jones is accused of taking the man’s wooden cane and smashing the back window of his Chevy Malibu. Jones left with the cane, which police said the man needs to walk because he is physically challenged.
The man told police he thought about trying to take his cane back from Jones but feared he would be hurt by him.
When police went to the scene, a neighbor asked whether they were investigating the incident involving the elderly man and identified Jones as the suspect, telling them to “check the towers,” the complaint said.
Police said they located Jones outside the Central Towers apartments, which is about 1.5 miles from his home on Alcoa Drive.
When police asked Jones what happened he responded: “That guy doesn’t belong here. How was I supposed to know he wasn’t placing a bomb in the dumpster,” the complaint said.
Jones told police that he told the man to leave multiple times and then used his cane to smash the car window when he refused, the complaint said.
Jones said he gave the cane to a friend “so there wouldn’t be any evidence,” according to the complaint.
Tony LaRussa is a TribLive reporter. A Pittsburgh native, he covers crime and courts in the Alle-Kiski Valley. He can be reached at tlarussa@triblive.com.
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