Philadelphia police on Saturday identified a man suspected of car theft and kidnapping the family of a pizza delivery man in Philadelphia on Friday night, captured by dozens of police officers after a speeding police chase.
Police identified the man as Marcel Jenkins, 33, of the Strawberry Mansion. They say he was behind the wheel of a fleeing car in a chase, which ended just before midnight after a random drive through Franklin Square, on the border between Center City and Northern Liberties, just a block from the department’s headquarters. city police.
A man allegedly hijacked a pizza delivery man with his family inside, abandoned the vehicle, stole another and led the Philadelphia police in a high-speed chase down I-95 and surface streets. The police said he even drove to the headquarters parking lot and showed them the middle finger.
Jenkins was dragged out of the vehicle by several police officers at around 11:15 pm, Philadelphia Police Department captain Nicholas DeBlasis said officers had to use their stun guns to subdue the suspect.
Later on Saturday, prosecutors charged Jenkins with three counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree car theft, second-degree aggravated assault on a police officer, five counts of criminal fraud and other charges related to Friday’s incidents. at night.
A spokesman for public prosecutor Larry Krasner said Jenkins is on $ 750,000 bail and will undergo a court-ordered mental health assessment.
The man later identified as Jenkins also ran for Interstate 95 for a while before continuing on to the surface streets. At one point, the suspect even went into the police headquarters parking lot, made donuts and showed the police a middle finger, DeBlasis said.
SkyForce10 from NBC10 was live and following the chase, which lasted about 20 minutes before its end in the park.
The pizza delivery man and his family were not injured. They were not in the vehicle involved in the police chase, the police said.
A pizza delivery man making a stop near North Broad Street and Erie Avenue in northern Philadelphia had his worst nightmare in reality. Someone kidnapped him and kidnapped his wife and two young children, police said. NBC10 reporter Drew Smith tells the story of the kidnapping before the suspect led the police in a chase through the city.
The initial robbery and kidnapping occurred around 8:30 pm, during a deliveryman’s stop at one of the City View pizzerias. The pizza guy got out of the car near North Broad Street and Erie Avenue, and that’s when the car thief got in.
But the pizza delivery man’s wife and two small children, aged 2 and 4, were still in the car.
They were found by the police about two hours later, unharmed.
While police officers were still looking for the car thief after the kidnapping, they received a call about an accident at the intersection of 21st and Spring Garden, DeBlasis said. The suspect apparently hit a woman in the back before getting out of the first car, threatening to shoot the woman and then taking off in her car, the captain said.
The police quickly located a second vehicle that the suspect allegedly stole, and that’s when the chase started.
It meandered through the Old Town, sometimes heading in the opposite direction of the one-way streets and for a short time on Interstate 95. At one point, two police vehicles collided while chasing, DeBlasis said.
The chase finally ended in Franklin Square near the police headquarters, where the man drove through the snow before the police ran out of their cars, surrounded him and dragged him out.
Despite the chaos, no one was hurt, said DeBlasis.
“This defendant was very brazen. We are very happy with the result, “he said.