Dave's Food Mart suspected robber ID'd through surveillance, prior crash

The man accused of robbing Dave's Food Mart with a pocket knife Wednesday was identified through surveillance footage, the purple T-shirt he wore and a nearby crash several hours earlier.Brent P. Bennett, 46, of 80 Norwood Ave., Apt. 2-C, is charged with robbery, a second-degree felony punishable by two to eight years in prison. He was interviewed at the Norwalk police station several hours after the incident at the 84 Benedict Ave. convenience store and then arrested without incident."He admitted to being there. (He said) because he didn't get any money, he didn't think he could be charged with anything," Chief Dave Light said.A witness reported seeing Bennett sitting at the picnic table outside of Dave's before the robbery."That was before he went in to rob it," Light said.The series of circumstances started with a one-vehicle crash involving Bennett. About 4 a.m. he was driving a full-size van. Light said the suspect turned onto Hickory Street from Benedict Avenue."He drove down a concrete curb and got his van stuck," Light said. "He was upset."Bennett called a towing service, which took the vehicle from the scene.An officer then drove Bennett from the crash site to his Norwood Avenue apartment. Light said soon after the suspect arrived home, he got into an argument with his live-in girlfriend."She kicked him out of the apartment," the chief added.Soon afterward, Bennett reportedly walked to Dave's Food Mart. Light estimated this was about 5 a.m. and the suspect walked up to the counter, pulled out a pocket knife and demanded money from the two clerks. The suspected robbery happened during a shift change."They backed up from the center and said 'no,'" Light said. "He ended up walking out of the store."While in Dave's, Bennett was wearing a purple T-shirt over his head and one the clerks asked him to remove it. Afterward, the suspect is accused of running southbound on Norwood, possibly toward his apartment, Light said. Police and the state Highway Patrol searched Norwalk looking for Bennett. Light said officers studied the high-quality surveillance footage from Dave's and said "that's the same guy we had across the street," referring to the van crash.About 9 a.m. Bennett called the station."He wanted to know why they had a holder on his van. He wanted his van back," Light said.At that point, police told Bennett they needed to speak to him about the Dave's incident."(It was a) fairly easy case for us to solve," Light said. "It really was an open-and-shut case."Bennett