A man wanted by Darien police on charges of assault and robbery in an incident last February was identified with help from North Carolina police and taken into custody with help from New York City police, Darien police announced on Wednesday.
Arrest photo from Darien P.D.
Quentin Stroman
Here’s how Darien police described what happened, in an account including accusations not proven in court:
Back in February, two men suspected of shoplifting at the Walgreens store on Heights Road were followed into the parking lot by an employee, who confronted one of them.
That employee was struck by one of the two men — the police account at the time said the victim believed it was one of the men who was not holding a bag of loot while witnesses said it was the man with the bag. Whoever struck him, the employee was hit so hard that he fell to the ground, receiving minor injuries.
Police were able to arrest the man he confronted, Keston M. Charles, 22, of Brooklyn, New York, but Charles told police he didn’t know the actual name of his accomplice, who went by “Q.”
Police took possession of the bag of loot, a garbage bag that held items priced at a total of $1,658.78.
Police didn’t say how, but they came to see a surveillance video recording of four men charged with shoplifting over-the-counter medication in Raleigh, North Carolina. The video was in possession of police in that city.
Based on the surveillance video recordings in both the Raleigh and Darien cases, Darien police said, they identified Quentin Stroman, 22, of Brooklyn, New York, as the man who assaulted the Walgreens employee.
Darien police sought and obtained an arrest warrant for Stroman, and on Aug. 23, New York City police informed Darien police that they had him in custody.
Darien police took custody of Stroman, apparently on Tuesday (the police announcement didn’t say which day). Stroman, appeared that day in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
- Editorial note: New York state government, in one of its bizarre quirks, calls superior courts “supreme” courts and calls their state supreme court the “Court of Appeals.” The state judicial system has various confusing names for actual appeals courts. You can’t make this stuff up.
In court, Stroman decided not to contest his extradition to Connecticut. On Wednesday morning, Darien police took him to state Superior Court in Stamford.
Stroman is charged with second-degree robbery, third-degree assault, fourth-degree larceny and criminal conspiracy to commit fourth-degree larceny in the Walgreens case. His bond for that was set at $500,000.
He is also charged with sixth-degree larceny in a 2018 case, and his bond was set at $25,000 in connection with that. Darien police didn’t give any further information about that.
He didn’t post either of the bonds.