A robber who provoked a shootout with employees at a Cheektowaga pawn shop during a botched robbery attempt last year has been sentenced to five years in prison, Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announced.
Erie County Court Judge Sheila A. DiTullio also ordered five years of probation for Jaquail A. Yamani, 30, of Cheektowaga upon his release.
Yamani pleaded guilty in June to two counts of attempted first-degree robbery and single counts of attempted first-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and attempted second-degree robbery.
Prosecutors said shots rang out after Yamani brought a laptop and a Bluetooth speaker to pawn at the store in the 1100 block of Walden Avenue around 4 p.m. on May 1, 2023.
While the merchandise was being examined, prosecutors said, Yamani put a gun to the head of a store employee, who pushed it away, went to the back of the store and got his own gun. Yamani, an unidentified accomplice, the employee and a co-worker then shot each other several times.
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The store employees were not injured, prosecutors said, but Yamani went to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, later that day to be treated for a gunshot wound. He was linked to the robbery through surveillance video, license plate readers and the laptop left in the store.
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