Brook Park man charged with aggravated robbery, assault in Pine City Holiday gas station robbery

A Brook Park man has been charged with two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of third-degree assault after a robbery at the Holiday gas station in Pine City on June 6.

According to the criminal complaint, Pine County Sheriff's Office deputies were dispatched to the gas station on a report of a robbery that had just occurred.

The employee working as a cashier at the Holiday gas station told law enforcement that a man grabbed him by the shirt and hit him when he was ringing up his items.

The suspect told the cashier he wanted all the money in the register and hit him again, and the victim was unable to activate the panic alarm.

The suspect also threatened to shoot the victim, who called out for help to a delivery truck worker in the back of the store. When he approached to intervene, the suspect turned toward him with his fists clenched, grabbed his items off the counter, and left without paying.

Authorities located the suspected vehicle at the gas pumps at the Pine City Speedway station, which exited and accelerated quickly in the direction of I-35.

A deputy initiated a pursuit near mile marker 172, and the suspected vehicle slowed down and moved to the shoulder near mile marker 175.

The driver, identified as Nicholas Padron Sr., matched the physical description of the suspect from the robbery. He exhibited signs of intoxication.

After being transported to the Pine County Detention Center, Padron was noncooperative with jail staff, and did not comply with directions for field sobriety tests.

Surveillance video confirmed that the suspect in the robbery was Padron.

The victim was hospitalized after the incident with a broken nose.

Padron was charged with one count each of first-degree aggravated robbery, second-degree aggravated robbery, third-degree assault, fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, and DWI refusal to submit to a chemical test.

Padron will make his initial court appearance on July 15.