NEWARK, NJ — Police arrested a man in connection with a carjacking involving a vehicle occupied by a woman and two children.
Pedro Salazar, 28, of Newark, was taken into custody Sunday evening following the incident in the 100 block of Bloomfield Avenue, according to Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda, Sr.
At approximately 7:38 p.m., police responded to a call of a carjacking.
A male victim had left a woman and two children inside a parked vehicle while he entered a store in the area to make a purchase.
The suspect entered the vehicle’s front driver’s side door and demanded that the woman, who was sitting in the front passenger side of the vehicle, exit, or he would drive off with the two children, who were sitting in the back seat.
The woman and her two children, ages 17 and 4, exited the vehicle before the suspect drove off, heading eastbound on Bloomfield Avenue.
A tracker on the carjacked vehicle assisted police in locating it at Mt. Prospect Place.
Upon becoming aware of police presence, the carjacking suspect drove off, heading northbound on Mt. Prospect Place, striking a parked vehicle, and then traveling to the 500 block of Clifton Avenue, where it was located unoccupied.
The suspect had fled through backyards on Clifton Avenue and Ridge Street before police apprehended him in the 500 block of Parker Street.
Salazar faces a charge of carjacking.
