A police recruit arrested this month on charges of robbing a Brooklyn bodega is saying he was wrongly accused.

The recruit, Gerson Ruiz, is accused of being one of a trio that robbed a Bushwick convenient store at gunpoint on May 5.

Mr. Ruiz says he was helping move a friend’s lizard at the time of the robbery. “They needed a scapegoat,” Mr. Ruiz said. “I didn’t have nothing to do with it.”

Mr. Ruiz was so excited about joining the police academy this summer that he carried in his pocket his acceptance letter from Commissioner Raymond Kelly. He said police confiscated the letter, and now his hopes of becoming a police officer are dashed.

“I feel bad. I was prepared,” he said. “Now it’s got to be put on hold.”

Mr. Ruiz is waiting to hear if a grand jury will indict him. Police have said they have fingerprints and surveillance video as evidence that Mr. Ruiz participated in the robbery.

The police department said it stood by the arrest.

Mr. Ruiz, who has no criminal record, said he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the day of the incident, he said he saw three men — the suspects in a robbery that occurred minutes before — crash a car into a light pole and another car.

As the men fled the scene in different directions, Mr. Ruiz approached the cars. Then, he said a plainclothes officer ordered him to get on his knees and arrested him.

He said he and his friends tried to explain to the officer that he had just finished carrying a tank containing a friend’s lizard up a flight of stairs.

“I guess he chose not to listen,” Mr. Ruiz said.