Lakewood Gas Station Bandit Suspect Charged

A probe of a vicious Lakewood service-station robbery that stretched on since June leads investigators to a township 44-year-old.

Gerardo Guillermo Ruiz was charged with robbery, theft and weapons possession by Lakewood police today and placed in the Ocean County Jail in Toms River. Superior Court Judge Wendel Daniels set bail at $175,000 with no option for release on payment of 10 percent.

The 48-year-old attendant at the BP on River Avenue told responding officers that a white male, clean shaven and bald, approached him seeking a pack of cigarettes. As he retrieved them, the suspect grabbed him, sprayed him with oven cleaner, and took about $1,200 from him, then fleeing north, police said.

Ruiz was arrested in connection with an unrelated crime on July 18. Investigators found that he matched the general description given by the victim, police said.