A 21-year-old man charged with kidnapping and robbing an Ohio State student has now been charged with two other robberies and is a suspect in at least three more, police say.
Jeffrey A. York, of Livingston Avenue, was arrested Oct. 11 at an East Side motel after police identified him as a suspect in the Oct. 6 kidnapping of an OSU student at 15th Avenue and High Street. The student told police that at 11:30 p.m., a man identified as York asked for directions and then forced him at gunpoint into a car with three other male passengers.
The four men drove the student to ATMs around the city before stealing his cell phone and dropping him off in the East Side, said Sgt. Shaun Laird of the Columbus Police robbery squad. Reports state that the men stole $600 from the student.
Shortly after police identified York as a suspect in that crime, they received reports of a similar robbery that occurred downtown Friday night. A man and woman were outside Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace at 248 S. Fourth St. when a man approached them in a car and asked them for directions before robbing them at gunpoint. The man stole a camera and medications, among other property.
On Sunday, police traced York to the East Side motel where he was arrested and charged in connection with the OSU kidnapping.
Laird said Friday that police were also going to charge York for a recent robbery that occurred at Parsons and Innis avenues, in the city’s South Side. He is also a suspect in three other robberies, including one that occurred at King and Hunter avenues 20 minutes before the Oct. 6 kidnapping, and the robbery of a Capital University student in Bexley the same night.
York has been charged with three counts of aggravated robbery and one count of kidnapping, and investigators are reviewing other cases to determine if he is a suspect in others. He is being held in jail on $545,000 bond and his case will go before a grand jury Tuesday to determine if he will be indicted on felony charges.
Police are still investigating the other men who were in the car with York during the robberies.
