Prince George’s County police say three D.C. men are suspected of using “the jaws of life” to pry over $257,000 from ATMs. News4’s Paul Wagner reports.
Night after night, men wearing masks stormed into 7-Elevens in Prince George’s County early this year and stole cash from ATMs.
After a long investigation, investigators believe they now know who did it.
Three D.C. residents in their 30s are accused of ATMs robberies in Beltsville, Lanham, Oxon Hill and Upper Marlboro starting in January, county police said Monday.
“Our robbery unit and our partners – they saw to it that they wouldn’t get away with this crime. … They thought they could get away with it, and we showed them they could not,” Chief Malik Aziz said at news conference.
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Police say the men used “the jaws of life,” which usually are used to save people trapped in car crash wreckage, to pry open the machines and steal more than $257,000. They were charged in five ATM robberies and suspected in others, police said.
The suspects are Jeff Crews, 33; Maurice Roots, 34; and David Jerome Walker, 39.
Roots was arrested in Clinton on Wednesday. Crews and Walker were arrested in D.C. the next day. D.C. officers searched the suspects’ homes and found cash and guns, and recovered multiple vehicles, police said.
Crews and Walker are accused of robberies on:
- Jan. 29 at a 7-Eleven on Cherry Hill Road in Beltsville
- Jan. 29 at a 7-Eleven on Watkins Park Drive in Upper Marlboro
- Feb. 1 at a 7-Eleven on Good Luck Road in Lanham
- Feb. 6 at a 7-Eleven on Oxon Hill Road in Oxon Hill
- Feb. 19 at a 7-Eleven on Baltimore Avenue in Beltsville
Crews, Roots and Walker are accused of robberies on:
- Feb. 22 at a 7-Eleven on Lanham Severn Road in Lanham
Walker faces 45 charges, Crews faces 43 and Roots faces seven.
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How GPS trackers played a key role in the investigation
Police cracked the case in part through the use of GPS trackers. A Lexus GS 350 was caught on video leaving one of the robberies, a court document says. Investigators were able to find the car in D.C. and put a GPS tracker on it.
Police had the men under surveillance for some time and had placed a second GPS tracker on a car police believed the men were using, court records say. The suspects got suspicious and were able to find and remove the tracker, police said.
‘To me, it’s organized crime’
Investigators are still trying to solve a series of ATM robberies from November 2023 in which the jaws of life also were used. Aziz said he believes investigators may link the suspects to additional crimes.
“We have a belief that these may grow and that they did cross state lines and that there are going to be more [charges] added to this right here. To me, it’s organized crime,” he said.
One of the men charged, Crews, was indicted in 2015 along with 13 others and sentenced to 10 years in prison for being part of what federal authorities called the Simple City Crew. The criminal enterprise involved carjackings and other crimes, prosecutors said.
Crews was released from federal prison in April 2023.
Detectives from the county’s robbery unit and carjacking unit were assisted by D.C. police and the Washington Area Vehicle Enforcement Team and Narcotic Enforcement Division.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to call police or submit a tip anonymously.
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