Holtsville Man Charged in Knifepoint Robbery of Suffolk County Community College Employee

Mitchell Taylor, 32, of Holtsville, was arrested early Wednesday and charged with first-degree robbery after police say he robbed a Suffolk County Community College employee at knifepoint inside a building on the Ammerman campus in Selden. The victim, a 29-year-old college employee, was not injured and reported the crime to campus security, which notified 911.

Police and local outlets place the robbery on Tuesday night, March 3, inside the Norman F. Lechtrecker Building on College Road, though accounts differ on the exact hour. Newsday and Daily Voice report the suspect entered the Lechtrecker Building about 6:40 p.m., approached the employee with a knife and demanded her wallet and jacket; the woman complied and the suspect fled. Patch reported the incident around 8:40 p.m., saying Mitchell Taylor went inside a campus building on the 500 block of College Road, wielding a knife and taking the wallet and jacket.

Suffolk County Community College issued a statement Wednesday confirming the victim was a college employee and describing the Public Safety response. The college said: "Upon learning of the incident, Suffolk County Community College's Public Safety team responded rapidly and worked with law enforcement to assist in their efforts to apprehend the suspect. The college immediately issued a college-wide public safety alert. The victim was a college employee, who was not harmed."

Suffolk County Police Sixth Squad detectives identified Taylor as the suspect and arrested him at his Holtsville home on Long Island Avenue just after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4; Daily Voice gives the arrest time as 1:05 a.m. Taylor was charged with Robbery 1st Degree and was being held overnight at the Sixth Precinct, with an arraignment scheduled at First District Court in Central Islip on Wednesday, March 4.

The Norman F. Lechtrecker Building houses central Academic Affairs offices including the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the College Associate Dean for Accreditation/Institutional Affairs, according to campus information cited in coverage of the incident. College officials said Public Safety worked with law enforcement in the apprehension and that a college-wide alert was issued immediately after the robbery.

Authorities have not released a single official timeline that reconciles the differing reported times; Suffolk County Police Sixth Squad is the investigating unit listed in charging reports. Police and court records should confirm whether Taylor was formally arraigned and whether any property taken - the victim’s wallet and jacket - has been recovered.