Lawrence Laws Gets 13 Years for Mount Airy Bar Heist

Lawrence Laws, 29, of Philadelphia, PA, is going away for 13 years after terrorizing a 76-year-old bar owner and his employee during a violent, premeditated heist at the Mermaid Bar in Mount Airy. At approximately 1:15 a.m. on February 2017, Laws and two accomplices lay in wait on Germantown Avenue, ambushing the victims as they prepared to leave after closing. One robber hid inside the bar’s vehicle, wielding what appeared to be an AK-47, sending the victims fleeing into the night—only to be hunted down and forced to the ground at gunpoint.

Forced back into the bar, the elderly owner and his bartender were systematically stripped of everything: cash from their pockets, money from the register, cartons of cigarettes, a cell phone, and a firearm hidden behind the counter. Laws escalated the violence when the older man resisted, pressing a gun to his head and threatening to kill him. He also threatened to track the victim to his home unless he complied. The robbers then dragged the business owner to the basement, where they stole hidden cash and seized his debit card and PIN—later used to drain his account at an ATM across the street.

Laws was convicted of Hobbs Act robbery, which targets crimes interfering with interstate commerce, and of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. He received 13 years in federal prison plus five years of supervised release. His co-defendants have already pleaded guilty, confirming the crew’s coordinated brutality and criminal intent.

“Lawrence Laws and his co-defendants traumatized an elderly business owner and his employee, preying on them when they were most vulnerable – at the end of their shift, in the early morning hours when the hustle and bustle of Germantown Avenue stops,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. “Today’s sentence should serve as an example to others who use guns to terrorize business owners: our ‘All Hands on Deck’ initiative uses every law enforcement tool at our disposal to find and stop the most violent criminals in their tracks. If you rob any kind of business in Philadelphia with a firearm, you are going to face serious federal charges.”

Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, called the assault “horrifying” and emphasized that no one should live in fear of being ambushed at work. “Our Violent Crimes Task Force is working hard to put dangerous armed robbery crews like this behind bars and make Philadelphia safer,” Maguire said. “Today’s sentence ensures Laws won’t be terrorizing anyone else like he did that night in Mount Airy.”

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Philadelphia Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alison Donahue Kehner. It falls under Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a federal initiative reinvigorated in 2017 to combat violent crime through coordinated local and federal law enforcement efforts. The message is clear: in Philadelphia, armed robbery is not just a local offense—it’s a federal one with life-altering consequences.