Pair Quickly Nabbed After Package Store Robbery

A man accused of robbing in Hamilton on Saturday afternoon was nabbed just moments later as he fled with an alleged accomplice.

The store clerk received a minor cut to his thumb in the course of the robbery but did not require medical attention, police said. The robber made off with cash but didn’t make it too far.

Dispatcher Keith Halloran took a call from the store on Bay Road at 1:15 p.m. reporting an armed robbery with a knife, according to police. The male robber reportedly fled in a small yellow car driven by a female headed south on Route 1A. On the way to the store, Office Karen Wallace passed a car meeting that description headed southbound on Route 1A.

“I motioned to it to pull over and it didn’t,” Wallace said on Saturday evening.

She turned her cruiser around and as Sgt. Jeff Tobey and Officer Brent Morong were headed north, they too came upon the car and the two cruisers blocked it in in front of - less than a mile south of the package store on Bay Road.

Both the driver of the yellow Hyundai Tiburon, Ashley E. Mazac, and passenger, Michael A. Gallella, were both arrested without incident, police said.

Gallella, 30, 4 Webster Court, Stoneham, was charged with armed robbery; assault with a dangerous weapon, a knife; giving a false name to a police officer; threatening to commit a crime and possession of a dangerous weapon. It is possible he will face more charges, Wallace said.

Mazac, 24, was charged with accessory to armed robbery after the fact and cocaine possession. Police said it was not immediately clear where she is living but has recent addresses listed in Gloucester, Peabody and Malden. It is likely she will also face additional charges, police said.

Wallace said nobody else was in the store at the time of the robbery.

Both suspects were being held without bail and were scheduled to be arraigned in Ipswich District Court on Monday. Wallace said Gallella also had outstanding warrants charging him with armed robbery, uttering and larceny.

Hamilton Police Sgt. Stephen Trepanier and Wenham Police Officer David Marsh were also involved in the arrest.