He’s not just legless, but he’s also friendless!
A disabled man and a pair of gun-toting suspects are pointing fingers at each other, following their arrest in connection with a Brooklyn robbery.
Charles Marcus was wheeled silently into Brooklyn Criminal Court for arraignment yesterday, a day after he and accomplices allegedly robbed a man in Park Slope.
Marcus, 40, — whose legs had been amputated above the knee — waited in his hand-controlled white van while Darnell Cade, 35, and Raheem Roberts, 21, robbed victim Ken Vargas at gunpoint on Second Street and Seventh Avenue at about 1 a.m. Friday, police said.
Cade pulled a gun, while Roberts rifled through the victim’s pockets, according to a criminal complaint. Cade said Marcus was the mastermind of the operation.
“Marcus is a terrorist,” Cade told cops, the complaint said. “He is the mastermind, and I just do the work.”
But Marcus insisted he showed up only after getting a call from Roberts to pick them up.
“It’s bogus,” Marcus told The Post outside Brooklyn Criminal Court. “I didn’t do it. I got a call from Raheem Roberts telling me to come get him. I go over there to pick them up, and the police pulled [us] over.”
Marcus said he was as surprised as anyone when cops pulled him over.
“When they got behind me, I pulled right over. I didn’t do nothing ,” he said. “I was legit. Why would I do crimes in my truck, knowing I’m going to get in trouble?”
For now, Marcus might have a point.
Both Roberts and Cade have been charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, while Marcus has been charged only with criminal possession of a weapon.
Roberts is being in lieu of $10,000 bail, while Cade was being held on $15,000. Marcus was released on his own recognizance.
The wheelchair-bound suspect insisted that he had “no idea” that Roberts and Cade had just allegedly committed a robbery. Marcus said he hadn’t even been acquainted with Cade.
“I know Raheem. He’s like a nephew to me, an individual I grew up with, that’s his son,” Marcus said. “When [Roberts] first came to New York, he stayed with me for a little while . . . I don’t know no other dude.”
Police initially suspected Marcus of waiting in his white Mercury Mountaineer while Roberts and Cade stole the victim’s keys, his Metrocard and $47.
Additional reporting by Daniel Prendergast and Matt McNulty