A carjacking incident occurred a week ago when a woman stopped her vehicle after spotting a man lying in the street in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
The woman was with her two children and on her way home from a friend’s house when she saw the suspect on the roadway. According to the woman, the suspect appeared to be choking.
The concerned woman got out of her vehicle and checked on the man. The man, a 22-year-old from Wallingford, Connecticut, then jumped up and chased the woman back to her car.
The woman got her children out of the car just before the suspect allegedly stole her vehicle and drove off.
Englewood Cliffs NJ police officers arrived at the scene a short time later. They chased after the suspect, locating him near Sylvan Avenue. That’s when the suspect allegedly rammed the stolen vehicle into both of the police cruisers.
The suspect reportedly got out of the car and confronted police officers who had arrived at the scene to lend assistance. The other police officers came from Alpine, Palisades Interstate Parkway, and Tenafly.
Remarkably, the suspect was able to get away from the officers and allegedly steal one of the police cruisers. The subsequent pursuit took police through several Bergen County towns, including Alpine, Bergenfield, Dumont, New Milford, Paramus, and River Edge.
The chase came to an end when the suspect collided with a New Milford patrol vehicle while attempting to enter Route 4 West from Hackensack Avenue.
A Leonia police officer then rammed the back of the stolen police cruiser and sent the vehicle onto the lawn of the Paramus Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealer.
The suspect exited the cruiser and tried to evade police officers, but they quickly apprehended him.
The suspect faces a number of criminal charges, including carjacking, aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, eluding police, and obstruction of justice.
For more information about this case, go to the CliffviewPilot.com article entitled “Route 4 Maneuver by Leonia Officer Ends Crash-Filled Chase of Carjacker in Stolen Englewood Cliffs Police Cruiser.”
Here is the dash cam video of the incident.