An Astoria man who uses a wheelchair has been charged with his second bank robbery in six months after allegedly wheeling into a TD Bank branch at 41-01 Queens Blvd. Monday afternoon and giving the teller a note that read, “Give me $20,000. I have a bomb. I will shoot.”
After the teller surrendered an unspecified amount of cash, Kelvin Dennison, 23, who lives on Astoria Blvd., “fled south on Queens Boulevard,” according to Queens DA Richard A. Brown.
“The defendant did not allow his disability to hinder him from breaking the law or frightening a bank employee,” Brown said in a statement.
Dennison was arrested July 1 for allegedly robbing a Santander Bank branch in Sunnyside in a similar manner on June 29.
He was held in jail in lieu of $15,000 bail in that case until a judge allowed him to be released on a “conditional felony/misdemeanor disposition” requiring that he enter and stay in an inpatient mental health program for at least a year.
The court was not notified that he was discharged from the program on Dec. 29 due to noncompliance with residency requirements, the DA said. Dennison’s attorney was not available for comment.
