ENGLISHTOWN — Three residents of New York were arrested by officers from Englishtown and Manalapan after they carjacked a woman on the morning of Nov. 30.
In a press release, Englishtown Police Chief Peter Cooke said that at 9 a.m., a female resident of Manalapan was in her vehicle, a 2015 Mazda3, and parked at Walgreens, 2 Gordons Corner Road, Englishtown, when she was approached by three individuals who forced her from her vehicle.
The three individuals took the vehicle from the woman and began driving on Gordons Corner Road toward Route 9.
Cooke said the woman whose vehicle was taken immediately called 911 and was initially assisted by a Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office telecommunicator.
The telecommunicator dispatched Englishtown Patrolman Cynthia Buckel to the carjacking incident and notified surrounding agencies of the carjacking that had just occurred at the pharmacy in Englishtown.
Cooke said that unbeknownst to the alleged assailants at the time, the woman was in the Walgreens parking lot waiting on assistance from AAA to change a flat tire that had just occurred to her vehicle.
After fleeing with the woman’s vehicle on Gordons Corner Road and entering Manalapan, the alleged assailants realized the vehicle was disabled and pulled into the parking lot at Congregation Sons of Israel, 33 Gordons Corner Road.
Cooke said it was not long before police units from the Manalapan Police Department came upon the vehicle and all three individuals were detained. Buckel arrived at the synagogue shortly thereafter and placed all three individuals under arrest.
The individuals did not have any identification on them and provided little information to Buckel or to Englishtown Detective Cpl. Alexander Dinicola, who conducted interviews with them, according to the police chief.
Cooke said no weapon was used or shown at the time of the carjacking. When the individuals forced open the door of the woman’s vehicle, the woman fled on foot. He said she was not physically harmed during the incident.
In an update on Dec. 1, Cooke identified the three individuals as:
• A 19-year-old female from the Bronx, N.Y., who was charged with carjacking, theft of a motor vehicle, conspiracy to commit a crime, theft of property and hindering her own apprehension;
• A 20-year-old male from Brooklyn, N.Y., who was charged with carjacking, theft of a motor vehicle, conspiracy to commit a crime and theft of property;
• An 18-year-old male from Brooklyn, N.Y., who was charged with carjacking, theft of a motor vehicle, conspiracy to commit a crime and theft of property.
Cooke said all three suspects verbally admitted their involvement in the carjacking during interviews with an officer. They were initially placed in the Monmouth County jail, Freehold Township, pending a detention hearing.
Later on Dec. 1, Cooke reported that two of the assailants who were arrested in Englishtown had been positively identified by the Jamesburg Police Department as individuals who, prior to the carjacking in Englishtown, attempted to carjack a woman in Jamesburg.
He said Jamesburg police have charged those two individuals with criminal attempt to commit carjacking and conspiracy to commit carjacking.
The two individuals were identified in Jamesburg – which is about 5 miles from Englishtown – after the Englishtown Police Department released complete descriptions of the assailants to the public and to surrounding law enforcement agencies, according to Cooke.
In an update on Dec. 3, Cooke reported that the three assailants who were arrested following the carjacking in Englishtown had initially been observed being dropped off behind the Village Center, 14 Wilson Ave. (the strip mall next to Walgreens).
The vehicle those three individuals arrived in was a light gray or silver 2003 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle with a Pennsylvania license plate. The vehicle was reported stolen out of Staten Island, N.Y., earlier on Nov. 30.
Cooke said the occupants of the SUV who were not arrested are wanted for questioning by the New York Police Department in regard to the stolen vehicle; by the Jamesburg Police Department in regard to the attempted carjacking in that borough; and by the Englishtown Police Department in regard to the carjacking in Englishtown.
The police chief extended his department’s gratitude for the assistance provided by the telecommunicators at the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and by the officers of the Manalapan Police Department in the immediate aftermath of the carjacking incident in Englishtown on Nov. 30.
