Lawrence Laws Gets 13 Years for Mount Airy Bar Heist

Lawrence Laws, 29, of Philadelphia, PA, is headed to federal prison for 13 years after being sentenced for the violent armed robbery of the Mermaid Bar on Germantown Avenue in Mount Airy. The heist, which unfolded just after 1:15 a.m. in February 2017, involved ambush, terror, and a fake AK-47 assault rifle trained on a 76-year-old bar owner as he closed up for the night. Laws and two accomplices lay in wait, then pounced, forcing the victims back into the bar at gunpoint.

Inside the bar, the crew went to work—raking cash from the register, stealing cartons of cigarettes, grabbing a cell phone, and snatching a firearm hidden behind the counter. When the elderly owner resisted being taken to the basement, Laws pointed a gun to his head, threatened to kill him, and warned he’d hunt him down at home if he didn’t comply. Downstairs, they ripped his debit card and PIN from him, then fled across the street to a bank ATM where they made multiple withdrawals before vanishing into the night.

The Mermaid Bar owner and his bartender were left shaken, traumatized by the cold precision of the attack. The robbers didn’t just steal money and goods—they shattered any sense of safety in what should have been a routine end to a long shift. The timing was no accident: they struck in the dead zone of early morning, when Germantown Avenue was dark and quiet, its usual foot traffic long gone.

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams didn’t mince words: “Lawrence Laws and his co-defendants traumatized an elderly business owner and his employee, preying on them when they were most vulnerable.” She emphasized that federal prosecutors are deploying every resource through the ‘All Hands on Deck’ initiative to stop violent criminals. “If you rob any kind of business in Philadelphia with a firearm, you are going to face serious federal charges,” Williams said.

Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, called the attack “horrifying” and praised the Violent Crimes Task Force for putting dangerous crews like this one behind bars. “People shouldn’t have to fear being ambushed at gunpoint at their workplace, home, or anywhere else,” she said. Today’s sentence, she added, ensures Laws won’t terrorize 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), the Justice Department’s nationwide push to dismantle violent crime networks through federal, state, and local collaboration. Laws will serve 13 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release.

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