SOUTHERN BERKSHIRE COUNTY — A joint investigative task force involving the Lee, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington police departments resulted in the arrest of two New York men and a pair of unidentified juveniles for brazenly stealing liquor yesterday from two South County package stores, the departments said in a joint news release today.
On Tuesday, Dec. 28, at approximately 7:30 p.m., three individuals entered Berkshire Liquors on Housatonic Street in Lee. The men grabbed armfuls of alcoholic beverage containers and immediately fled the store without paying. The suspects jumped into in a dark-colored SUV with unknown New York plates and fled the area before the Lee Police Department could respond.
Local law enforcement agencies were given a basic vehicle description and were told to be on the lookout for it. A short time later, a similar incident occurred at Domaney’s Liquors on Main Street in Great Barrington, where three individuals again entered the store, grabbed armfuls of alcoholic containers and fled without paying.
This time, a partial New York license plate reading was provided by a witness and was identified as the same SUV that had fled the scene earlier in Lee. An updated description of the vehicle was distributed to area law enforcement.
A Stockbridge police officer subsequently spotted a vehicle matching that description traveling east on East Main Street (Route 102) in Stockbridge. The officer attempted to stop the SUV, which failed to stop before crossing the town line into Lee. The vehicle came to a stop only after reaching the dead-end section of Quarry Hill Road, which is a business park in Lee, police said.
Officers from the Lee, Great Barrington, Lenox, and Massachusetts State Police responded to the scene. Officials from the Stockbridge, Lee, and Great Barrington departments conducted an immediate preliminary investigation on the scene.
As a result, the Stockbridge Police Department arrested the vehicle operator, identified as Nyzaiah Williams, age 18, of First Ave. in New York City for a variety of charges, including: unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle; failure to stop for police; unlawful attachment of license plates, negligent operation of a motor vehicle; and receiving stolen property.
Three additional vehicle occupants were arrested by the Great Barrington Police Department for shoplifting in an amount more than $250. Of these three, one individual was identified as a 16-year-old juvenile, one individual was identified as a 17-year-old juvenile, and the third was is identified as Albert L Alexis, 23, of Parsons Boulevard in New York City, police said.
Two additional occupants in the vehicle were released without charges. Officers observed a large number of liquor bottles and possibly other stolen items inside the vehicle in question. The investigation is still ongoing and is being jointly conducted by investigators from the three primary involved agencies.
The vehicle was impounded and a search warrant has been sought. In addition to the arrests and charges made by the Stockbridge and Great Barrington police departments, charges are also pending from the Lee Police Department.
This story will be updated soon with new information expected from the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.
