DNA from Cigarette Connects Uniondale Man to Robbery, Cops Say

By on March 14, 2013

Nassau County detectives used DNA from a discarded cigarette to connect a Uniondale man to a robbery of a Chinese food delivery woman last year, police said.

Detectives charged 41-year-old Derek Arms for the alleged robbery and also for three other robberies that occurred in July. In all, he was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and two counts of second-degree robbery. All of the incidents involved a worker delivering food for a Chinese restaurant, police said.

Arms was placed under arrest Wednesday at Nassau County Correctional Facility where he is incarcerated for another charge, police said.

On Sept. 9, police said Arms was allegedly armed with a large hunting knife during the robbery of the delivery woman in Uniondale.

The three other incidents occurred on July 12 and July 27 in Uniondale and July 28 in Roosevelt, police said. In all three cases, Arms was allegedly armed with what appeared to be a gun, police said.

Arms will be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.

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Rashed Mian Rashed Mian (201 Posts)

Rashed Mian has been covering local news for the Long Island Press since 2011. He graduated from Hofstra University in 2010 where he studied print journalism. Rashed covers daily local news for the web and contributes to the Press' print edition. He's also a social media geek.