MANHATTAN — The well-dressed gunman who robbed a Diamond District jewelry store last month was arrested on Wednesday, officials said.
Leon Fenner, 58, was arrested in Maryland for stealing $600,000 worth of jewelry from a store on the eighth floor of a West 47th Street building on Nov. 11, in what investigators believe was an inside job.
Fenner, who was wearing a suit and carrying a bag, posed as a messenger and rang the bell at Watch Standard Jewelry at about 2:20 p.m. and walked into the building, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office.
Fenner's accomplice, 37-year-old Rondu Frisby, known as "Reef," was working in the jewelry store at the time and is believed to be the one who buzzed Fenner into the store, sources said. Frisby was arrested on Nov. 17 for conspiring in the robbery.
Frisby helped orchestrate the crime by using a "secret phone" to text the co-conspirators before and after the heist, according to sources.
Once inside the store, Fenner delivered two large envelopes to the owner, while another man remained in the hallway and served as a lookout, federal prosecutors said.
Fenner then allegedly pulled out a semi-automatic gun, pointed it at the owner and demanded all the jewelry in the store be placed in his bag, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. He pistol-whipped the owner's relative, who was at the store, and then took off with 20 watches and other gold jewelry, prosecutors said.
Police had been looking for Fenner, a Harlem resident, since last month. He was identified based on surveillance images and the fingerprints on the envelopes he left in the store, prosecutors said.
He was charged with armed robbery and brandishing a firearm. His lawyer didn't respond to request for comment.
The man who acted as a lookout during the robbery was still at large as of Friday.
