Police Arrest Man After Alleged Multi-State Crime Spree Ends In Crash
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - An alleged three-state crime spree came to a crashing end for a Bronx man Friday.
As CBS 2's Dick Brennan reported Friday, Luis Figueroa, 33, was accused of kidnapping a woman, setting an auto dealership on fire, and attacking a man before his alleged crime spree was finally stopped in front of the George Washington Bridge.
Figueroa first allegedly kidnapped an eight month pregnant woman at gunpoint from her Hazleton, Pennsylvania, home at 8:30 a.m., sources told CBS 2.
The woman managed to escape from Figueroa and flagged down a passing school bus, sources said.
Two girls who were in the house managed to escape unharmed.
Figueroa then allegedly abducted another woman and fled on Interstate 80 into New Jersey, sources said. That woman managed to escape while they were in the Poconos.
Figueroa then allegedly tried to trade in his stolen truck for a Cadillac Escalade at a dealership in Paterson, N.J., sources said.
When that didn't work, he allegedly came back with a gas can, and assaulted a worker at the dealership before setting the dealership on fire, sources said. He then allegedly stole the Escalade and took off, sources said.
"My brother was struggling and told him, 'Listen, think it over, don't do this,' but he kept doing what he did," a woman said at the dealership. "And then he set it up on fire."
"Somebody came over yelling, 'Fire, fire,' and a couple of my guys from the shop, they grabbed a fire extinguisher, ran across the street, and tried to put the fire out," a man who works across the street said.
He was spotted driving away from burned dealership and police began to chase him.
He then rammed into a parked Port Authority of New York and New Jersey vehicle at the New Jersey toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge, Port Authority police said.
He then drove over the bridge into Manhattan, and rammed a second Port Authority car at 173rd Street and Pinehurst Avenue in Washington Heights, PAPD said.
He was finally cornered and taken into custody at 179th Street and Fort Washington Avenue. He had burn injuries, apparently from the arson incident, and was taken for treatment, PAPD said.
Three Port Authority police officers were treated for minor injuries. The woman who was allegedly kidnapped was also being treated at a hospital.
Meanwhile, the suspect was taken to the burn center at Weill Cornell Medical Center for serious injuries, Brennan reported.
As of 5 p.m., detectives remained at the auto dealership investigating the alleged arson.
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