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Man Faces Charges In Botched Robbery At Reading Convenience Store

By Diana Rocco

READING, Pa., (CBS) -- Reading Police say the would-be getaway driver in Monday's botched deadly robbery is now facing serious charges, even though he never pulled the trigger.

Police called to the corner of Kutztown Road a day after two armed robbery suspects are killed running from Krick's Korner store (see related story).

Neighbors upset by the growing memorial outside the store for 18-year-old Robert Decarr and 24-year-old William Medina are accused of robbing.

Police say Medina and Decarr held the store owner at gunpoint Monday.  As they were leaving with cash, cigarettes and lottery tickets a neighbor shot them in the street after they pulled their guns on him. Now police say they've arrested a third man, 21-year-old Alexander Garcia Bialek, the driver who dropped Decarr and Medina off moments before.

"He's charged with conspiracy to the robbery in which the two other suspects were killed and murder in the second degree," Sergeant John Solecki of Reading Police Department said.

The law allows Garcia Bialek to be charged with his friends' murder, even though he was not there when they were killed.

The robbery was caught in tape Monday and police say there were witnesses inside the store and on the street who were able to identify the getaway vehicle.

"The two actors that robbed the store were seen getting out of a brown SUV prior to the robbery.  We were able to identify the owner of that SUV, and through the investigation, we learned who had been operating that vehicle earlier in the day," Solecki said.

Police are now looking into the possibility the trio was involved in other robberies.

Police are calling this shooting justified.  They are not identifying the shooter.  He has chosen remain out of the public eye but neighbors say he lives nearby and is a friend of the store owner. Police say he will not be charged.

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