Brooklyn Crash Turns Into Dramatic Gunpoint Kidnapping On Upper West Side
Oct. 2, 2018, 5:15 p.m.
An UWS police commander called it "one of the strangest cases that I've been a part of in the 18 and a half years I've been in the NYPD."
The suspect's vehicle
A collision between a truck driver and BMW driver in Brooklyn turned into a dramatic kidnapping attempt, capped off by a police chase that ended on an Upper West Side fire escape on Monday afternoon. Captain Timothy Malin, commanding officer of the 20th Precinct, called it "one of the strangest cases that I've been a part of in the 18 and a half years I've been in the NYPD."
The incident began Monday at noon on Gates Avenue in Brooklyn, when a 32-year-old medical supply driver accidentally hit a parked BMW with the company truck. He was approached by two men from the car who demanded cash, police say. But the truck driver called his boss, who wanted to go through the insurance company.
That's when the two suspects, Rondell Halley and Francisco Jimenez, allegedly brandished a gun, abducting the driver and taking his phone to threaten the boss, saying something along the lines of, "If you want your van back and you want your delivery driver back, you're going to have to pay us."
The boss decided to play along, Malin said, telling the suspects to come to the Upper West Side for the cash. The pair took the driver, and, after dumping the medical supply truck in Queens, headed to Manhattan.
At 2:41 p.m., the boss called 911 and alerted officers to the seemingly improvised kidnapping-extortion plot. When the suspects arrived for the cash, police approached them, prompting the suspects to flee. They did not get far, crashing the BMW onto the sidewalk of West 71st Street, between Broadway and West End. Police arrested Jimenez near the vehicle, while Halley escaped by running through the courtyard of a school on West 71st Street, hopping a few gates, and then climbing up a building's fire escape.
He made it to the eighth floor until officers apprehended him. No civilians or officers were hurt during the chase.
If you saw the commotion at 72, B’Way to West End, that was us chasing two robbers. One was captured on street, and the other fled into a building and was captured on a fire escape. It was great police work. Look for more details later on our Facebook page. pic.twitter.com/1ooBAXqZI1
— NYPD 20th Precinct (@NYPD20Pct) October 1, 2018
Police Officer Mark McCaffrey, who chased Halley up the escape, said, "You don't have too much time to think. You just act and react." He also noticed that Halley was "running out of gas and tired" as he approached the eighth floor, "so it was no fight" to arrest him.
The driver was also unhurt, though a little "shaken up" by the ordeal.
Detectives obtained a search warrant and, at 3 a.m. today, allegedly recovered a .25-caliber handgun, a small quantity of heroin, and a small quantity of cocaine from the BMW.
The investigation is ongoing, and Captain Malin said that neither of the suspects is the registered owner of the BMW. "We don't know if they have any connection to that vehicle or if it's an elaborate scam," Malin told reporters.
Reporters shouted questions at Halley as he was being led out of the precinct stationhouse today. Asked if he kidnapped the deliveryman, Halley replied, "I don't know."
Both Jimenez and Halley were hit with charges including criminal possession of a narcotic drug with intention to sell, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a controlled substance with intention to sell. Halley was also charged with reckless endangerment.
