Man tried to kidnap employee during Cricket Wireless robbery in Little Haiti, police say

MIAMI — A man who tried to kidnap a Miami wireless store employee as he robbed the business of several cellphones was identified after his own cellphone seemingly fell out of his pocket as he took off, authorities said.

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Miami police said Sulayman Zacchery Njie robbed the Cricket Wireless at 5742 NW Second Ave. ― in the city’s Little Haiti neighborhood ― on March 9. Officers took the 39-year-old into custody on four felony charges Tuesday.

According to an arrest warrant, Njie walked into the store at around 10:20 a.m. and told the lone employee that he “wanted to make a payment for his wireless account.”

Authorities said he then approached the woman and grabbed her by the jacket, telling her, “Give me the phones.”

The worker would later tell police that Njie “was holding one hand in his jacket pocket as if he had a gun,” the warrant states.

He told her “to go to the back of the store, where the safe that contains the cellphones is located,” police said, and “grabbed (her) by her jacket and pushed her towards the safe,” where she opened the safe. Njie “took several iPhones and Android phones from it,” the warrant states.

Authorities said Njie told the employee to open the back door and then demanded her truck keys, which she told him she didn’t have.

Njie told her, “I’ve seen you, let’s go,” according to police. The worker told him, “No, just go,” detectives said.

Police said Njie grabbed the woman “by her jacket again and tried to pull her outside, but (she) resisted and was able to close and lock the door when (he) left.”

According to the warrant, surveillance video showed the robbery inside the store, as well as “a phone in a beige case” in Njie’s back pocket. It states that video from near the scene as Njie fled showed him fleeing after the robbery, but without the phone in his pocket.

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A detective found “a Motorola phone in a beige case close to the rear exit of the store in the direction that (Njie) fled” and data obtained through a search warrant revealed that the phone was registered in Njie’s name.

Selfies and other photos found on the phone also tied Njie to the crime, police said.

Authorities said the victim later picked Njie out of a photo lineup, saying “she was 85% sure he is the (suspect who) robbed the store but could not be 100% sure because (he) was wearing sunglasses.”

It wasn’t immediately clear where or how Miami police located Njie, but he was taken into custody Tuesday on charges of kidnapping, burglary with assault or battery, strong-armed robbery and attempted carjacking.

Njie, also known by aliases including “Sulayman Bethel“ and ”Zacchery Sulayman,” has a criminal history in South Florida; court records show multiple past arrests in Miami-Dade County and Broward County court records call him a “career criminal.”

He spent time in prison in 2007 for Broward convictions on for fleeing and eluding, burglary and forgery.

He went back to state prison in 2017 after an arrest by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office for tampering with an ankle monitor. He was living in Cocoa at the time.

His most recent conviction appears to have been for felony criminal mischief case stemming from a 2024 arrest by what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department. Records show he received a three-day jail sentence after pleading guilty and was ordered to pay restitution.

He’s now back in jail and he may not be getting out any time soon. Records show Njie is being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional enter.

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