Home Invasion Suspect Faces Another Set of Felony Charges
By Dan Herbeck, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Sep. 29–For the second time in less than four months, a Buffalo man faces felony charges in connection with a violent home invasion in the suburbs.
And Amherst police wonder what Kevin L. Allen Jr., 27, of Carl Street, was doing as a free man on the streets.
Amherst detectives Friday said Allen terrorized two teenage girls after breaking into a home on Glenhaven Drive late Monday night.
Allen, believed to be extremely dangerous, is suspected in a series of home invasions targeting people who are either associates or family members of drug dealers, Detective Lt. William Tillman said.
Allen’s attorney said his client denies any association with home invasions or violent crimes.
The Amherst house that was targeted Monday night was the residence of people who are close to a suspected Buffalo drug dealer who was recently murdered, police said.
In early June, Allen was arrested by Town of Tonawanda police in connection with a violent May 31 home invasion on Starin Avenue, where several shots were fired. Tillman said he could not understand how Allen got back on the streets after his arrest in that case.
“We’ve worked closely on this case with Buffalo homicide detectives. They are aware of other incidents where he went into houses looking for drug money or a drug stash,” Tillman said.
Allen’s attorney, Paul G. Dell, said Allen was arrested but never indicted in the Tonawanda case “because the evidence against him is weak.”
That led to Allen’s release, without bail, after a felony hearing about seven weeks after his arrest, Dell said.
The Erie County district attorney’s office declined to comment on the cases late Friday.
Monday night, two masked men carrying handguns entered the Glenhaven Drive home through an unlocked door, forcing two teenage girls into bedrooms and taping their mouths, arms and legs. The intruders then searched the home for cash, police said.
The second man is still being sought.
In that case, Allen is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond after arraignment before Town Justice Mark G. Farrell, police said. Allen is charged with felony crimes of burglary, robbery, menacing, unlawful imprisonment and criminal use of a weapon. Burglary, robbery, menacing and weapons felonies had been filed against him after the Tonawanda arrest.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Allen turned himself in to police Thursday, Tillman said.
dherbeck@buffnews.com
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