Camden Courier-Post – December 9, 1992
By Louis T. Lounsberry and Irv Randolph, Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN—Two city employees helped police catch a robbery suspect Tuesday after a restaurant holdup that was witnessed by two state Superior Court judges.
Police said the incident occurred at Shirley’s Brass Rail at 425 Market St. shortly after 8:30 a.m. A man entered the restaurant and asked owner David Mancini for change to make a phone call.
When Mancini opened the register, the man produced a handgun and demanded money. Mancini was told to lie down on the floor, and the robber fled with $72.
It was then that Sage Russell, an employee of the city’s electrical bureau, and Vida Neil, a street sweeper with the city’s department of public works, became involved.
Russell ran out of the restaurant, saying there had just been a robbery and Neil, who was sweeping outside of the restaurant, hailed a police car at Fifth and Market streets.
Russell got into the police car and helped Patrolman Norman Bumm locate the suspect, who was arrested in the rear of 507-509 Cooper St., police said.
Police also recovered a BB pistol the man dropped while climing over a fence.
The man was identified as Kermit Dunmore, 35, also known as Alfred Jones, of the 900 block South 9th Street, Camden. He was charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, illegal possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was being held at Camden County Jail awaiting a bail hearing today in state Superior Court in Camden.
“For once they caught somebody while the robbery was in progress,” Neil said. “Maybe this will deter some of the criminals.”
Neil said the restaurant the robber picked routinely serves lawyers and government officials.
Police said two of the customers Tuesday were state Superior Court judges. They would not identify them because they are witnesses to the robbery.
Sources at the county justice complex, however, said the two were Judges John B. Mariano, a former Camden County prosecutor, and Joseph M. Nardi Jr., a former mayor of Camden. Neither could be reached Tuesday for comment.
“The was the wrong restaurant for this guy to rob,” Neil Said.
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