Pottstown man sent to prison for gunpoint robberies, ‘traumatizing situations’ for 3 victims

NORRISTOWN — A Pottstown man who terrorized three people at gunpoint, forcing them to drive to ATMs to withdraw money from their banks while threatening to kill them during the “traumatizing situations,” faces up to three decades in prison.

Dorrian Christopher Thompson, 26, of the unit block of North Franklin Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 15 to 30 years in a state correctional institution after he pleaded guilty to charges of robbery, burglary, kidnapping and aggravated assault in connection with three incidents that occurred between March 8, and March 20, 2023, in Lower Pottsgrove, Douglass (Mont.) and Lower Merion townships.

Judge Wendy G. Rothstein imposed the sentence as part of a plea agreement and ordered Thompson to have no contact with the three victims and to stay away from all of the financial institutions that were targeted.

Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Hughes sought the lengthy prison term against Thompson, who also listed an address along Creamery Lane in Bally.

“The defendant committed three seriously violent crimes with three separate victims over the course of a month. Each victim went through a really, really horrific incident,” Hughes said. “He held these people at gunpoint.

“We can’t be sure why he targeted these three specific people. But it seems that he targeted people that he found to be vulnerable, that he could take advantage of, definitely people who weren’t suspecting this to happen to them, people who were just living their lives who found themselves in really, really traumatizing situations because of this man who targeted them,” Hughes added.

The first incident occurred about 1:15 a.m. March 8, 2023, when Thompson broke into the Lower Pottsgrove home of an 81-year-old man, pointed a semiautomatic handgun at the victim and demanded money, according to a criminal complaint filed by Lower Pottsgrove Detective Joseph Campbell.

After the victim gave Thompson about $500, Thompson forced the man into the victim’s vehicle and ordered him to drive to the Tri County Federal Credit Union along Medical Drive where he forced the victim to withdraw $1,000, using an automated teller machine, from the victim’s accounts.

“(The victim) said he was in fear of his life during his encounter with the male,” Campbell alleged, adding Thompson told the victim to cooperate or he would “pop” him. “(The victim) took this as he will be shot by the male if he didn’t obey his commands.”

After returning to the victim’s residence, Thompson ransacked the man’s home, tied the man’s legs and put him in a closet, pushing various pieces of furniture in front of the closet door. When the victim was able to free himself he called 911 and then discovered the intruder had also stolen his 2017 Ford Escape vehicle, which was later found abandoned in the township, according to the arrest affidavit.

The second incident occurred at about 2:43 a.m. March 14, 2023, when Thompson broke into a residence and business along Swamp Pike in Douglass (Mont.), pointed a semiautomatic handgun at the male resident and stated, “you’re gonna (sic) give me all your money,” according to a criminal complaint filed by Douglass (Mont.) Police Chief Robert B. Evans.

While holding the gun to the victim’s head at times, Thompson forced the victim to turn over several hundred dollars in cash, a firearm, a gaming console and games. Thompson also demanded the victim use a computer to access his bank accounts. While using the computer, the victim dialed 911 and Thompson stated, “don’t make me kill you” before grabbing the keys to the victim’s vehicle and fleeing from the area, according to court documents.

“(The victim) advised that throughout the encounter the suspect kept racking the slide to the handgun,” Evans alleged, adding the victim “believed that he was going to be killed at any moment.”

The third incident occurred about 7:20 p.m. March 20, 2023, when Thompson approached a man in the driveway of the victim’s Lower Merion residence, pointed a gun at him, ordered the victim into his vehicle and ordered him to drive to various banks. Multiple ATM withdrawals failed at the banks until the victim was able to withdraw $1,000 from an ATM at a City Avenue bank, according to court papers.

Thompson then ordered the victim to travel to North Philadelphia and stated that is “where he was going to take him to an alley and kill him,” detectives alleged.

“(The victim) stated that the male had kept the gun pointed at him throughout the incident,” Lower Merion Detective David Herbst wrote in the arrest affidavit. “The male continued yelling at (the victim) and told him to look ‘chilled’ or he would kill him.”

When the victim was traveling on Broad Street he “made the decision to jump from the vehicle as he believed the male was going to kill him,” Herbst alleged.

“In an act of bravery, that victim decided to jump out of his car while it was moving and was seriously injured as a result,” Hughes explained. “That seemed like the only choice for him to survive that incident.”

After the victim jumped from the moving vehicle it crashed and Thompson exited the vehicle and fled on foot. The victim was treated at Temple University Hospital for multiple serious injuries.

Detectives used footage from various video surveillance cameras in the areas of the three crimes and DNA analysis on items recovered from the crime scenes to assist them in developing Thompson as a suspect in the crimes.