KEENE – A young Gilsum man charged with the armed robbery of a Price Chopper told police he was coerced into the crime, said Keene Police prosecutor Sgt. James Cemorelis in court Thursday morning.

Dillon James Kocsis, 19, of Nash Corner Road, Gilsum, was arraigned on the felony charge of armed robbery in the 8th Circuit Court, Keene District Division.

In Kocsis' admission to police, Cemorelis said, “The reasons offered were that he was assaulted and sort of forced to do it by a group of individuals in town.”

The weapon brandished during the Wednesday robbery about 1:55 a.m. appears to have been a BB gun, Cemorelis said. The BB gun was recovered along with a backpack in a vestibule of the store, according to court documents.

“Initial reports indicated that a male subject had entered the store and walked up to the on-duty clerk and demanded cash. The clerk turned over an undisclosed amount of money,” police said in a press release Wednesday morning. The man showed a black handgun during the robbery, police said.

No one was injured during the incident, and the suspect fled on foot afterward.

Swanzey police and the Keene police K-9 attempted to track the man from the supermarket area but were unsuccessful, police said in the press release.

According to court documents, clothing believed to have been worn by the suspect during the robbery was found on a scent trail picked up by the K-9 between Home Depot and a rail trail through a wooded swampy area that leads to West Street Extension.

A Home Depot employee reported seeing a black pickup truck with a couple of people in it behind Home Depot.

Police tracked the truck registration to a 38-year-old man, whose 17-year-old son was found in a red Pontiac Firebird in the area searched by police after the robbery. The teen was identified and told to move along after the teen said he was there because he had had a fight with his mother, court documents said.

Kocsis is friends with the 17-year-old and lives with him and the 17-year-old's mother in Gilsum, court documents indicated.

Police arrested Kocsis Wednesday at approximately 2:45 p.m.

During Kocsis' arraignment in district court, Judge John Burke set his bail at $10,000 cash at the recommendation of Cemorelis, who said Kocsis certainly posed a danger to the community.