Man with knife robs N. Central grocery store

Another robbery by a knife-wielding man was reported at Fortune Grocery on North Central Avenue last Friday, according to Nassau County Police.

A suspect described as a black man, 5 feet 9 and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, a black ski mask and gloves and holding a large knife, entered the store, at 246 N. Central Ave. in Valley Stream, at 8:20 p.m., police said. He told a 39-year-old male employee to hand over money from the register. The employee complied and the man fled on foot with an undetermined amount of cash, police said.

No injuries were reported.

The details of the robbery were similar to four others that took place around Valley Stream between Feb. 9 and March 11.

The first occurred on Feb. 9 in North Woodmere, where a suspect described as a black male between 5 feet 10 and 6 feet tall with a thin build reportedly robbed a Shell gas station, on Rosedale Road, while brandishing a large kitchen knife. The same man, police said, then struck three times in Valley Stream. He robbed Evan’s Corner Candy Store, on Rockaway Avenue, on Feb. 24, where a struggle resulted in minor lacerations to a store clerk’s hand; North Central Liquors, on North Central Avenue, on March 10; and Dragon Garden, on Rockaway Avenue, on March 11.

Those robberies are being investigated as related, according to Detective Sgt. Bill Butler. The suspect was last seen wearing a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt with a ski mask or scarf covering his face, and white-soled sneakers and gloves. He was seen fleeing in a white Hyundai with yellow New York license plates.

The most recent robbery is not currently being attributed to that suspect, but police said they always look for patterns in similar incidents.