A 15-year-old was arrested and charged with carjacking, assault and theft of a motor vehicle after four separate carjacking incidents took place in the Upper Park Heights area Sunday.
Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith called the suspect a “repeat violent offender” in a news conference Monday.
At approximately 1:30 a.m., two people pulling up to their apartment in the 6300 block of Park Heights Ave. in the Glen neighborhood were victims of an armed carjacking, during which their Nissan Maxima was taken. At 10:30 a.m., a Honda Accord was stolen in the 3100 block of Bancroft Road a few blocks away from the first carjacking in the Cross Country neighborhood. At 3:20 p.m., a Chevrolet Impala was stolen in the 3500 block of Bancroft. And at 8:25 p.m., a Hyundai Elantra was stolen from the 3200 block of Szold Drive in the fourth carjacking.
Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer (D-District 5) was notified after the second carjacking.
“I was notified by concerned people in the community but also by Shomrim, and I had contacted the various agencies in the police department to increase the patrols and resources in the area immediately,” he said. “I wanted to nip this in the bud.”
After the third carjacking, Schleifer went out and made sure all possible resources were being used. After the fourth carjacking, a Shomrim member saw the Elantra meet up with the Impala and followed both cars for a while. Schleifer had Northern District Commander Maj. Richard Gibson on the phone, who made sure police got their helicopter in the air and Northern District officers ready, as the cars were headed for that district. Through that communication, police were able to catch a suspect.
“This was community collaboration at its finest,” Schleifer said.
Smith echoed those sentiments.
“We are making progress in our investigation and we hope to make additional arrests related to this soon,” Smith said.
The suspect was also involved in two armed robberies and the theft of a motor vehicle in January, the theft of a motor vehicle in February and a robbery with a deadly weapon in March. It is believed on April 12 the suspect cut off his ankle-monitoring box and failed to show up in court on April 13, for which a warrant for his arrest was issued, Smith said.
Smith also expressed frustration with people who “have proven themselves to be criminals consistently [getting] out” and emphasized that the police are merely tasked with finding and arresting suspects and cannot control the outcome of other parts of the criminal justice system.
“I can’t underscore the frustration much more than this scenario,” he said. “We believe that he and some of his associates are also responsible for possibly up to eight more carjackings that took place [Sunday] around the area.”
Monday’s Press Conference:
Baltimore Police Media Briefing https://t.co/fAceqYUvwr
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) April 24, 2017
