Suspect in Rite Aid Attempted Robbery Has Prior Charges

The man police charged in connection with a stabbing and attempted robbery at a Hartford drug store has lived in Connecticut for only a year but has prior convictions here, according to information revealed in court.

There are also at least two robbery charges pending in Puerto Rico against Eliabner Mercedes Maldonado 38.

He was arrested over the weekend, accused of an attempted robbery and assault on Sunday at Rite Aid on  Franklin Avenue around 4 p.m.

Police said he stabbed a woman who intervened. 

Mercedes Maldonado went behind the counter of the Rite Aid and tried to grab cash from the money drawer, police said. 

Witnesses told investigators he and the clerk struggled and a brother and sister who were shopping at the store  joined in, at which point Mercedes Maldonado pulled a box cutter from his coat, cutting the sister, Maria Silva, 24, on the leg before the three were able to subdue him. 

Silva was treated and released from a nearby hospital.

Mercedes Maldonado already been convicted in Connecticut of threatening and harassment and is on probation. 

The judge ordered him held on $500,000.
 

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