Airport chase causes mayhem, police cruiser stolen and crashed

By George Berkin and Mark Mueller
STAFF WRITERS - 11/20/99

Gunfire erupted outside a Newark International Airport terminal at the
height of the evening rush yesterday, sending passengers and employees
diving for cover as police opened fire on a carjacking suspect whose
desperate attempt to flee resulted in a series of harrowing car crashes.

No one was seriously injured in the 4:40 p.m. chase, but the episode jarred
shoulder-to-shoulder onlookers outside Terminal B as the suspect, trying
to escape in a stolen police car, drove the wrong way down the terminal's
busy access road, smashing into a Cadillac and sideswiping a van before
the hobbled cruiser came to rest against a guardrail.

Witnesses said Port Authority police officers, some in pursuit of the
suspect and some emerging from the terminal, peppered the disabled
cruiser with gunfire, apparently missing the man, who was armed with a
gun he wrested from a police officer during his initial flight.

They arrested him moments later, capping a drama that witnesses said
seemed like a Hollywood action stunt come-to-life.

"It was horrific," said Ricky Huggins, 40, of Jersey City, a Delta Airlines
skycap who watched the incident unfold. "I thought they were filming a
movie when I saw that car come around the bend and crash into all those
other cars.

"Then the police just kept firing. Pow, pow, pow, pow. They must have
fired 10, 11 times. Everybody hit the deck when they heard the shots. 
Me, I wished I was home."

Police late last night said they had not yet confirmed the identity 
of the man, who is in his 20s. He was being treated for minor injuries 
at University Hospital in Newark and was expected to be transported
afterward to the Port Authority police station at the airport pending 
a bail hearing today in Newark Municipal Court.

Peter Yerkes, a Port Authority spokesman, said the man will be charged
with, among other crimes, robbery, carjacking, aggravated assault on a
police officer, eluding police and two counts of possession of a dangerous
weapon, one in connection with a knife and one in connection with the
gun.

Four police officers who suffered minor injuries in the incident were
treated at Elizabeth General Hospital and University Hospital. They were
later released. Three civilians, victims of car collisions, also were 
treated for minor injuries at University Hospital and released.

Police and witnesses gave the following account of the incident, which
snarled traffic on the airport's internal roads and on major roads outside
the airport for hours afterward:

Armed with a 10-inch knife, the man approached a woman in the parking
lot of Terminal A, where she had just arrived to pick up her sister. The
man forced the woman from her car, a white sedan, and began to drive
away.

A security guard who witnessed the carjacking notified Port Authority
police, who responded moments later, beginning a chase that carried into a
lot across from Terminal B. It was there, authorities said, that the man 
lost control of the white sedan, colliding with a blue Ford Taurus.

Dennis Collins of Ocean Township heard the crash, parked his own car
and, not realizing the man was fleeing police, tried to help the man out
of the sedan, which had landed atop the Taurus.

"He got out on his own, stood up on top of the Taurus and, so help me,
tried to lift the white car off the other one" said Collins, who was at
the airport to pick up relatives. "He was gripping the fender trying to 
lift it up."

Four police officers arrived seconds later, ordering the suspect to the
ground, Collins and witnesses said.

"They had their guns on him. They could have shot him any time," he said.

Instead of lying on the ground, the suspect charged a female police officer,
wresting her service weapon from her. He then jumped into a police cruiser
and fled.

Witnesses said police fired at least two shots at the cruiser as it raced
out of the lot, striking several parked cars.

Authorities and witnesses said the man then turned the wrong way down
the terminal's main access road, speeding toward oncoming cars that tried
to get out of the way.

Some motorists couldn't manage the task. The speeding cop car barreled
into a Cadillac before sideswiping a van and striking the guardrail.

"The Caddy's windows just exploded when he hit it," Huggins said,
wincing at the thought two hours after the collision.

Paul Lukaszewski of Springfield was leaving the terminal in a car when 
he saw the police cruiser come charging toward him. Seconds later, it
crashed, Lukaszewski said, and police opened fire.

"At first I ducked," he said. "It was wild, really wild."

While the suspect was not hit in the barrage, several shots struck the
cruiser, one of them piercing the rear window. It was unclear if the
suspect ever raised the gun he had stolen from the police officer.

"He seemed like he was in a daze," Huggins said. "He wasn't really
reacting. Then the police smashed the side window and dragged him out
of the car -- hard."

Another cruiser whisked the man away within minutes, Huggins said.

In the aftermath, wreckage littered the access road, blocking access
to Terminal C and creating massive traffic tie-ups that extended onto
highways surrounding the airport. The congestion meant major delays for
departing and arriving passengers as well as for many homebound commuters. 

For some employees and travelers, however, the incident was more
than an inconvenience. Several called it terrifying given the crowds and
timing: rush hour on the Friday before Thanksgiving, traditionally a busy
time.

"It scares the heck out of me," said Ysabel Bravo, 26, a Continental
Airlines ticket agent. "Whenever shooting's involved, God knows what
could happen."


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