NEWARK MAN GETS 18 YEARS FOR MAPLEWOOD SHOP OWNER SHOOTING, AMONG OTHERS

The man who shot a Maplewood store owner during an armed robbery last year was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison this week for that crime and 16 others, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

An FBI release Wednesday stated:

"(Bobby Dawson) was sentenced today to 225 months in prison for committing 17 armed robberies of commercial establishments throughout Union, Essex and Bergen counties, all within a six-month period, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Bobby Dawson, 31, of Newark, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls to an information charging him with one count of committing an armed carjacking, one count of conspiring to commit Hobbs Act robberies and one count of discharging a firearm during the commission of one of those robberies. Judge Walls imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court."

Among the crimes was the April 1, 2013 shooting and robbery at MS&K Confectionery on Prospect Street in Maplewood. In that incident, shop owner Ken Parmar was wounded.

The FBI release said of that incident:

"In the MS&K robbery on April 1, 2013, Dawson threatened the clerk of the store with a .380 caliber semi-automatic handgun. When the clerk resisted, Dawson fired his gun at the clerk, ordered the clerk to lie down and then stole $9,000 from the cash register."