A Brooklyn Park woman is charged with helping a man who took at least $20,000 worth of jewelry from a store on Brooklyn Boulevard and punched an employee who tried to stop him, according to a criminal complaint.
Amirah Aishal-Ella Rice-El, 43, faces felony counts of aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery and theft of property worth more than $5,000. The complaint was issued Oct. 14 in Hennepin County District Court, and she was summoned to appear.
According to the complaint, officers were called on Sept. 10 to a business in the 8000 block of Brooklyn Boulevard on a report of an assault and found two people struggling outside. One was an employee of the business. The other was a man who, the complaint says, had been inside the store.
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The employee told police a man and a woman came into the store. The man was in the jewelry area while the woman shopped, took bedding items without paying and went out to a car, telling the man she was going to get the car ready, the complaint says. She drove around the lot and pulled the car up to the front door, and the man put a necklace and a pendant in his pocket and walked out past the registers without paying.
Outside, the employee tried to stop him, and the man punched him twice in the face, making his mouth bleed, then ran across the street, and officers arrested him. The items taken were worth at least $20,000, and Rice-El drove away, according to the complaint.
The aggravated robbery count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $35,000 fine or both, according to the complaint.
