New Rochelle, NY - PCP Smoking Suspect Steals Westchester Co. Police Car - Rams Other Police Car - Crashes - Taserd - Attempted Murder

Cops: Man steals police cruiser and crashes on Hutch after chase, jamming traffic
Oct 16, 2008 The Journal News

NEW ROCHELLE - A man has been charged with attempted murder of a Westchester County police officer after stealing a police car and crashing it this morning on the Hutchinson River Parkway, causing a major traffic jam, police said.

Lawrence Sanchez, 39, of Stamford, Conn., has been charged with attempted murder, second-degree assault, third-degree grand larceny, felonies, and driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, police said. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Mount Vernon court today at 2 p.m.

County police spokesman Kieran O'Leary said Sanchez was walking down Midland Avenue in Yonkers around 1:30 a.m. today displaying "erratic behavior" when a Yonkers police officer asked if he was OK. Sanchez responded by running away into a nearby wooded area by the Cross County Parkway.

Sanchez reappeared from the woods at the Fleetwood Metro-North train station in Mount Vernon where county police where waiting for him. Sanchez fled authorities again by jumping onto the train tracks. O'Leary said Sanchez circled around the station then got into a county police cruiser with its windows open.

A county officer tried to stop Sanchez by reaching into the car to stop him from starting the vehicle. The officer then fell after Sanchez was successful in starting the car and driving away. Sanchez then rammed into another cop car before getting away.

County police then chased Sanchez through Mount Vernon and Tuckahoe on Route 22 and other local roads. Then, Sanchez got onto the northbound Hutchinson River Parkway from Pelhamdale Avenue, Pelham. The tires then went flat on the patrol car Sanchez stole and he skidded off the road and onto an embankment slightly north of the parkway's Webster Avenue exit at around 2 a.m., nine minutes after driving off from the train station.

When county police surrounded the stolen car, Sanchez got out of the vehicle and challenged to fight the officers. He was warned before an officer subdued him with a taser.

O'Leary said Sanchez told police he had been smoking marijuana that was laced with PCP. The officer in the rammed cruiser and the officer who tried to prevent the theft were treated at Westchester Medical Center for injuries and released.

Police blocked the northbound parkway at the crash scene for several hours but congestion didn't become a problem until around 8 a.m. The investigation jammed both the Hutch and the eastbound Cross County Parkway. Two Hutch lanes were reopened shortly before 9 a.m. and the entire parkway by 11:30 a.m.
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