September 1, 2007 / News / Police Blotter / Williamsburg–Greenpoint–Bushwick

Carjacker nabbed after chase, crash

By Gersh Kuntzman

The Brooklyn Paper

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The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg

Aftermath: This is the stolen Toyota that cops say a carjacker rammed into an unmarked police car last week. The driver was arrested.

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A knife-wielding carjacker ended up in the hospital — and in custody — after his third attempt to steal a car resulted in a brief chase and a horrifying crash into an unmarked police car on Metropolitan Avenue on Aug. 20, police said.

The would-be thief started his crime-filled morning within the confines of the neighboring 94th Precinct at around 9:30, when he flashed his knife at a man and demanded that he turn over his commercial van.

The man complied, but went off to grab a 2X4 while the thief tried to get away. Alas, the van wouldn’t start, giving the van owner time to chase the thief away with the lumber, cops said.

But that didn’t deter the thief, who attempted to steal another car, this one stopped at a nearby red light. That driver saw the thief’s 11-inch butcher’s knife and sped off before the crime could occur, cops said.

Finally, the carjacker was successful, pulling the knife on a driver inside his car on Wythe Avenue between North Third and North Fourth streets, also in the 94th Precinct.

“Get out of the car or I will kill you,” he screamed, brandishing the sharp object that indicated he had the means to make good on his threat.

The driver abandoned the car, a new Toyota Echo, and the thief sped off towards Metropolitan Avenue.

That driver, a 51-year-old man, called 911, and cops broadcast the plate number of the Toyota throughout the 94th and 90th precincts.

Officers Konata Hood and Rudy Dominguez of the 90th Precinct, who were on routine patrol in their squad car, soon spotted the car and began following it. To elude police, the carjacker started driving on the wrong side of the road, where he struck an unmarked police cruiser carrying Officers Jose Santiago and Mark Newman, who were coming towards the scene.

The carjacker, 38, slammed into the unmarked car, totalling the Toyota and knocking himself unconscious. A star-shaped crack in the windshield indicated to cops that he had not been wearing his seat belt.

He was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he was charged with robbery, weapons and stolen property possession, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

Santiago and Newman were treated and released at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.

The butcher knife was recovered from the wrecked Toyota, cops said. Days later, the car was still sitting on Montrose Avenue, around the corner from the Union Avenue stationhouse.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper