By Madina Toure
A man and a female teenager were arrested in Brooklyn following a New Year’s crime spree in which they allegedly engaged in several carjackings using stolen cars from Brooklyn and Queens, the 109th Precinct and the NYPD said.
On Dec. 29, Stafford Berrian, 31, who police have listed as homeless due to his address being unavailable, and Jamaica resident Quiana Hodges, 17, are accused of robbing a 56-year-old woman of her 2005 Honda Pilot at the corner of Harway Avenue and Bay 41st Street in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, according to a police spokesman.
The suspects physically assaulted her, forced her back into the car and drove a short distance to Cropsey Avenue between 27th and 26th avenues, where they released her, the spokesman said.
While driving the Honda Pilot, the pair got into another accident at about 8:30 p.m. Jan. 1 with another vehicle on 20th Avenue and Petrecca Place, the spokesman continued. The suspects then abandoned the car and fled the scene, walking around the neighborhood for about an hour, the spokesman continued.
The 109th Precinct said it started a lengthy search, which included helicopters, to find the suspects, but the search did not yield any results.
At about 11 p.m., the suspects, still on foot, allegedly approached an 84-year-old man on Willets Point Boulevard, who was moving cars on his driveway, and asked him for directions, the spokesman added.
They then punched him in the face, causing the victim to suffer lacerations and bruises, and took his 2009 Chevy Cobalt and his wallet, he said.
At about 10:45 p.m. the next day, officers in the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn heard shots fired in the vicinity of Albany Avenue and Decatur Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the spokesman said.
Officers responded to the location and observed the Chevy Cobalt fleeing the area at a high speed rate and followed the car into the 73rd Precinct area, the official said.
The spokesman said the suspects lost control of the car and collided with
two parked vehicles at Howard Avenue and Bergen Street in Crown Heights, where they were arrested without further incident.
The pair was charged with kidnapping, robbery, assault, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, unlawful imprisonment, petit larceny, unauthorized use of a vehicle, menacing and harassment, according to a complaint filed by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson. Thomas Conforti, commanding officer of the 109th Precinct, said the only tie the two individuals had to the precinct was that they were driving to 20th Avenue to go shopping with stolen credit cards and the accident prevented them from doing so.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
