North Side flea market had neighbors suspicious of illegal activities

Lack of complaints or criminal reports kept the law away

Neighbors of The Swap Meet for years have known the eccentric North Side flea market as a good place to get a cheap Steelers T-shirt or a pair of sneakers, but also as the subject of quiet suspicion.

Loiterers lurked in the alley. Cars arrived after dusk. A buzzer was pressed to get inside. It all seemed a little shady.

Those suspicions were confirmed on Wednesday, after a failed heist at the Swap Meet ended in a shootout and the arrests of four men, including the store's owner. Police said they discovered the store on Brighton Road also was being used as a marijuana packaging operation.

Dale Scherer, who owns Scherer Lock and Supply directly across the street, was one of scores of onlookers who watched the chaotic events that unfolded about 11:30 a.m. and included the response of a SWAT team and what Mr. Scherer said was a startling "barrage of gunfire."

On Thursday, he watched a quieter scene from his storefront and wondered how the criminal enterprise went unnoticed.

"When you have the Zone 1 [police station] two blocks away, and they don't clean it up or do something about it, it makes you wonder," he said.

Police found drug paraphernalia and marijuana packaged in a variety ways, including inside a large box containing more than 21 pounds of the drug, according to an arrest affidavit for Erik Williams, 41, the store owner known by the crew who came to rob him as "the weed man."

Mr. Williams surrendered to police and was being held on drug charges.

Charged in the robbery were Kevin "K" Allison, 20, of Garfield, Rayshaun "Rizzo" Jones, 24, of the North Side, and Aaron Farrow, 24, of South Oakland, who told detectives that he and his associates stormed the place to steal marijuana -- an assault hatched only a short time earlier while getting high in a van that would later serve as a getaway car.

Mr. Farrow told detectives he was driving the van that struck Officer Colleen Bristow, who remained hospitalized Thursday with injuries including a broken elbow and a concussion.

"She called the station today, and she's in a good mood," Cmdr. RaShall Brackney said. Doctors moved Officer Bristow out of intensive care, the commander said, a sign she is improving.

Police said Mr. Farrow identified his co-conspirators. He told them Mr. Jones held Mr. Williams at gunpoint while the robbers pulled down his pants and said, "You know what this is, where is the weed?"

Mr. Farrow also identified three other people believed to be in the robbery. Major Crimes Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said police had not obtained arrest warrants for any other suspects.

The Swap Meet, known for its colorful spray-painted images of sneakers, wigs, jewelry and other goods promised inside, was closed Thursday.

"Good," said Cmdr. Cheryl Doubt of the city's narcotics and vice unit as she drove by and saw that it was shuttered, at least temporarily. She said the business was "a location that we have looked at," but wouldn't elaborate.

"When you're conducting a normal course of business and not bringing a lot of attention to yourself, it would be very difficult to determine," there was a drug operation inside, Cmdr. Brackney said.

She hadn't received complaints about it from neighbors, nor was it the site of past disturbance calls, aside from an April incident in which Mr. Williams was robbed. Three armed men in camouflage came into the store and took $600 from him.

David Grapes is president of W.W. Patterson Co., the general partner of Riversea Realty, which owns the building housing The Swap Meet.

"We didn't have any knowledge of anything illicit that was going on," his wife, Linda, said. "I am fairly certain he won't be a renter much longer."

Court records show Mr. Williams pleaded guilty to drug manufacturing and delivery and possession in 2007 and was sentenced to up to two years in prison and three years of probation. The district attorney's office is looking into whether The Swap Meet is creating a public nuisance, spokesman Mike Manko said.

"There may be legitimate business taking place at that location," he said. "That is something we will have to sort through."

Sadie Gurman: sgurman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1878. Staff writer Jonathan D. Silver contributed.

First published on September 17, 2010 at 12:00 am