Hatchet attack at Centereach 7-Eleven echoes series of similar crimes nationwide

This heist was quite the hatchet job.

Suffolk cops are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the hatchet-wielding man who robbed a Centereach 7-Eleven
in September.

The man — dressed in all black and wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap under a hoodie — entered the store Sept. 24 just after 11 p.m. and smashed a glass countertop lottery display with a hatchet, police said. The suspect demanded money from an employee, who in turn handed the cash register drawer to the suspect, police said.

No one was injured in the incident.

A video clip, embedded below, captured by a surveillance camera inside the 7-Eleven at 135 Mark Tree Road, shows that the man was also wearing sunglasses. In the footage, you’ll see an individual reach behind the front counter and hack away at the cash machine with the hatchet.

Other hatchet crimes

Embed from Getty Images

As it turns out, a hatchet is all too frequently used during violent crimes in the United States.

Rap recording artist Silento — perhaps best known for his 2015 hit, “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” — faced felony assault charges after allegedly attacking two strangers with a hatchet in 2020, authorities said publicly. Silento later was indicted on murder charges related to the killing of his cousin in Atlanta in 2021.

This past April, police needed rubber bullets to subdue a hatchet-wielding man at a Fuddruckers restaurant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. The man had threatened to attack the cops with the axe, and also shouted his intentions to possibly commit suicide. He was arrested and taken to a hospital for mental health evaluation and treatment.

More recently, a man armed with a hatchet was arrested late last month after allegedly holding three people hostage, including his ex-lover, inside a motel room in Salt Lake City. The 53-year-old man taped the hatchet to his wrist, according to a Fox 13 Salt Lake City report.

The suspect allegedly swung the hatchet at his captives when they begged to leave the Motel 6 room. In the report below from Fox 13, witnesses are quoted as saying the man was “agitated and paranoid.”

Hatchet kidnapping at a Motel 6

In Puyallup, Washington, last month, police arrested a man for attacking people with a hatchet and other weapons as they walked along a riverside walking trail, according to a Komo News report.

Witnesses in the Puyallup incident reported seeing the suspect with a machete and hatchet trying to attack an individual on the trail, and lunging at others on the walk. The video below is dramatic footage — taken by authorities aboard a helicopter — of the search for the suspect and ultimately his arrest.

A man who asked for and was refused free food at a McDonald’s in Chicago in August struck a teen and two 45-year-old women with a hatchet, police told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Also in August, cops in Frisco, Colorado, arrested a man who allegedly threw a hatchet at another man during a bar room argument, the Summit Daily reported. The hatchet missed the targeted man and did not hit anyone.

Closer to home, police in Worcester, Massachusetts, arrested a man in July for allegedly striking a man in the neck with a hatchet.

And back in June, a man in Grovesprings, Missouri, went to jail for after attacking and seriously injuring his neighbors with a hatchet, inclluding a pregnant woman, Ozark Radio News reported.