Victim: Pistol Used in Kingstowne Robbery

New documents obtained by Kingstowne Patch and suggest that a handgun or BB gun was used in an April robbery near Kingstowne Towne Center.

Around 10:35 p.m. on April 23, according to police, two men approached a teenage boy behind Kingstowne Towne Center. One of the suspects took the teen's phone, after hitting him in the head.  Since then, two men, and  , have been arrested and charged with the robbery.

New details are still surfacing in the case, however. After knocking the phone out of the victim's hand, one of the suspects asked the victim "if he had a problem." Then, the suspect said he would give the victim a problem, and lifted his shirt to show what the victim described as the handle of a pistol in his jeans. Another suspect then took the phone, a Blackberry Storm, and left with his accomplice.

This information comes from an affidavit filed by Fairfax County Police Department Detective Brooke D. Wright. Soon after the robbery, Wright, who was on patrol, saw the suspects flee into a wooded area. 

Less than an hour before the robbery, according to an affidavit, other police officers patrolling the shopping center spoken with the two suspects in the Kingstowne Towne Center parking garage. One officer later identified one suspect as Taylor, and, after looking at pictures of Taylor's known associates, incorrectly identified another man as the second suspect.

After on May 3, police began looking for the second man, releasing his name and picture to the media. That man was eventually arrested and, after police decided he wasn't involved in the robbery, released.

Police began looking for the second suspect in the robbery. In her affidavit, Detective Wright said learned that Degefa was actually the second suspect. She also learned that the stolen phone did not work after the theft.

In the affidavit, Wright also claims that she was told during the investigation that Degefa allegedly carries a BB gun and has used it in the past to rob people. Wright also says in the affidavit that police have a surveillance video of Degefa outside Kingstowne Towne Center's movie theater. 

Based on the information in the affidavit, police searched Degefa's home on the 6000 block of Crocus Court, in Franconia, on May 19. They seized seven items, according to a police inventory, including:

• two digital scales
• plastic baggies, described as "narcotic paraphernalia"
• a BB gun
• copper and plastic BB's
• a folding knife 

Degefa on May 19, as well.