A murderer out on parole used his second chance at freedom to commit three violent robberies, leaving a man shot and a woman slashed in his bloody wake, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn allege.
Mitchell Bostic, 50, spent 26 years in prison for pumping five bullets into a man in Brooklyn in 1992 and was released to parole in 2019.
Four years later, he’s back behind bars — after his distinctive kicks tied him to the robbery and shooting of a Brooklyn store employee in January 2023, the feds allege.
US Eastern District of New York
Mitchell Bostic is back behind bars after his distinctive kicks tied him to the robbery and shooting of a Brooklyn store employee in January 2023, the feds allege.
He was indicted on federal robbery charges last week and prosecutors linked him to two other stick-ups, including one from February in which he’s accused of slashing a woman in the face and neck.
The feds caught up with Bostic on Wednesday, charging him with robbing a store on Van Sinderen Ave. in Brooklyn on Jan. 4, 2023. The case is federal because it involves interstate commerce.
The feds say Bostic walked in at about 8:35 p.m., wearing a black puffer jacket over a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, a blue surgical mask and black, red and white sneakers. Those shoes would later be the key to his arrest.
He brandished a gun and demanded cash, and when the clerk stepped away from the register, he shot the worker in the thigh and ran off empty-handed, the feds allege.
US Eastern District of New York
An iCloud photo of Bostic showed him driving the same Chevrolet SUV that the robber was seen on surveillance video getting in, the feds allege.
Investigators got a warrant for data from a cell phone in Bostic’s name and when they looked at his iCloud camera roll, they found a photo of him wearing the same distinctive sneakers about three years earlier, according to court filings.
His iCloud also had an old pic of him driving the same Chevrolet SUV that the robber was seen on surveillance video getting into after the botched heist, the feds allege. And when he was pulled over for a traffic infraction on Jan. 12, he was driving that vehicle and wearing what looked like the same puffer jacket and hooded sweatshirt combo, the feds allege.
Cell phone data also placed his phone in the area at the time of the heist, the feds stated.
Though he’s only charged in the January robbery, federal prosecutors say he committed two others — on Christmas Eve 2022, he waved a firearm at a Brooklyn store employee and got $300 from the register, and this past Feb. 4, he tried to rob another store in the borough, slashing a woman who worked the cashier in the neck and face.
US Eastern District of New York
Bostic is back behind bars — after distinctive kicks tied him to the robbery and shooting of a Brooklyn store employee in January 2023, the feds allege.
Surveillance video from the February robbery shows the culprit wearing a medical boot on his leg and using crutches to walk, according to the feds. The previous August, Bostic reported to his parole officer he got foot surgery after a moped crash, according to court filings.
ATF agents also found a pink sweatshirt and green satchel similar to the February culprit’s outfit when they searched his apartment Wednesday.
Bostic is a lifetime parolee, after he was sentenced to 25 years to life in 1993 for the Nov. 24, 1992 murder of a man in the Brownsville Houses on Sutter Ave.
He’s repeatedly failed to report as directed by his parole officer, including a week before his arrest, the feds allege.
“Moreover, being on parole after more than a quarter-century in prison and subject to going back to prison has utterly failed to deter the defendant from reengaging in wanton violent crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Matthews wrote in a letter to Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl.
Bostic, who remains held without bail, could face 35 years behind bars if convicted.
