HENDERSON – Francisco Cosenza found out Tuesday just how wrong the old adage “there is never a cop around when you need one” really is when he tried to hold up a Starbucks in Henderson.
Officer Michael Wolff stopped by the busy Starbucks on College Drive at the Horizon College Plaza about 11 a.m. Tuesday after spending the morning in court as a witness for his various cases. When he went up to the counter to place his order, he saw a man behind the counter with a gun in his hand pulling money out of the register.
“There was no time to think; I just reacted,” said Wolff, a patrol officer with Henderson Police for five years.
Wolff, who was in plain clothes but wearing his badge and gun on his belt, drew his handgun, identified himself as a police officer and ordered the suspect to drop his weapon.
The suspect, later identified as Francisco Cosenza, 25, of Las Vegas, dropped the gun in his hand, but then tried to run out of the store. An employee had locked the door after Wolff confronted the suspect.
Cosenza ran through the glass door trying to make his escape. Wolff caught up with him a short distance away and took him into custody.
Cosenza was booked into the Henderson Detention Center on robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon charges after being treated for cuts from running through the glass door.
Wolff and the eight employees and customers inside the Starbucks at the time of the robbery were not injured.
The investigation into the robbery is continuing. Detectives believe that one or more suspects fled the area once Officer Wolff confronted the suspect in the store.
Anyone with information in this case is urged to call the Henderson Police Department at (702) 267-4750 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555 or visit
www.crimestoppersofnv.com.
Tips directly leading to an arrest or an indictment processed through Crime Stoppers may result in a cash reward.
-- Henderson Police Department
