/ Photos, Westport Police Department
WESTPORT — A 16-year-old Waterbury youth was arrested Tuesday in connection with the violent carjacking at a Bayberry Lane home Sunday, and the owner’s Aston Martin was recovered at an apparent “chop shop” in the upstate town of Berlin.
The teenager, one of two masked assailants who forcibly stole the expensive sports car from the Bayberry Lane homeowner after following the man to his home, faces charges of first-degree strangulation, home invasion, third-degree assault robbery by carjacking, first-degree burglary and first-degree criminal attempt to commit larceny of a motor vehicle.
The violent Sunday carjacking, which shocked a quiet Westport neighborhood, was recorded by home security cameras in footage released by police Monday.
Police and town officials will host a public forum on the surge in motor vehicle thefts and break-ins at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Town Hall auditorium.
The teen suspect was taken into custody at his Waterbury home, where police said “evidence linking him to the carjacking” was found as a search warrant was executed Tuesday by Westport police detectives, the Connecticut State Police Violent Crime Task Force and Waterbury officers.
A handgun with an extended magazine also was seized at the juvenile’s home, police said.
The youth faces additional charges for his alleged role in the theft of a 2021 BMW 530i, stolen in Westport last Saturday and apparently used by the carjackers to tail the Aston Martin owner to his Bayberry Lane home. The charges are first-degree motor vehicle larceny and theft of a payment card.
The Aston Martin was tracked to a residence in Berlin, where police said three other stolen vehicles were found when officers from the Bridgeport Auto Theft Task Force, of which Westport is a member, along with Berlin police executed a search warrant Monday.
Derrick Mcgill, 39, a resident of the Berlin home, was placed under arrest by the task force on multiple charges, but as of Tuesday had not been charged by Westport police.
In addition to the Aston Martin, police found the Westport BMW used by the carjackers in the Sunday incident, according to the report.
Also found at the alleged Berlin chop shop were a BMW stolen from Ridgefield and a Porsche stolen in Rhode Island, police said.
Mcgill, who was held on $250,000 bond, was charged by the regional task force with four counts of first-degree larceny of motor vehicles, first-degree conspiracy to commit larceny of a motor vehicle, payment card theft, illegal operation of a chop shop and conspiracy to commit illegal operation of a chop shop.
Lt. Eric Woods, the Westport spokesman, said more arrests are anticipated in the ongoing investigation.
The teen suspect was expected to be brought to the Bridgeport Juvenile Detention Center later Tuesday.
Police Chief Foti Koskinas, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the arrests were carried out “by utilizing technology, inter-departmental cooperation, and good old-fashioned police work.”
He credited the “rapid progress in this investigation” to collaboration between Westport police detectives and officers from the Bridgeport Auto Theft Task Force.
Connecticut has some of the toughest firearm regulations in the country, and I see three possible violations for the owner of this “Machine Pistol”. 1. Did they have a permit? 2. Were they of age to possess a handgun? 3. Extended capacity magazine.
No mention of these charges.
Kudos to Westport and other Departments for their work !
The problem with firearms restrictions is that guns are portable. Someone can easily purchase a gun in one state and transport it to another. Until this is addressed on a national level, this will always be a problem.
Eight of the ten highest murder rates are in Red States (where they seem to loathe sensible gun laws). But that doesn’t prevent the proverbial bad actors elsewhere from acquiring weapons in states where access is easy and then bringing them home.
For those of you who are believing the ridiculous statement that it’s red state policies causing gun violence let me apprise you of the facts. Let’s take red state Kentucky for instance. Crime is low except in urban areas like Louisville who are democrat run. This is the case around the country; look into yourself. When a town or city goes democrat and defund the police and coddle the criminals policies go into effect this is what you get. And then leftists tell law abiding citizens that the answer is to take your guns away. So now the only ones armed are the vicious thugs. How many times are you going to fall for this?
I know alternative facts are fun and form the foundation of the Republican Party, but the truth is different.
From https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-two-decade-red-state-murder-problem:
1) “The murder rate in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump has exceeded the murder rate in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden in every year from 2000 to 2020.”
2) “Over this 21-year span, this Red State murder gap has steadily widened from a low of 9% more per capita red state murders in 2003 and 2004 to 44% more per capita red state murders in 2019, before settling back to 43% in 2020.”
3) “Altogether, the per capita Red State murder rate was 23% higher than the Blue State murder rate when all 21 years were combined.”
4) “If Blue State murder rates were as high as Red State murder rates, Biden-voting states would have suffered over 45,000 more murders between 2000 and 2020.”
5) “Even when murders in the largest cities in red states are removed, overall murder rates in Trump-voting states were 12% higher than Biden-voting states across this 21-year period and were higher in 18 of the 21 years observed.”
Tom Prince using statistics from a leftist Washington D.C. think tank would have us believe that crime in America is caused by conservative policies. Wow, Tom, I’m a believer now. Of course your creative statistical mathematics may convince someone of the veracity of your statements but the empirical evidence tells a very different story. Overwhelmingly, crime rates are highest in urban Democrat run cities. When those cities are in red states they drive up the numbers for the state as a whole.
You have to laugh at people who rely on “empirical evidence” when actual facts and statistics contradict their world view.
I don’t feel the need to explain the math, but Red States and Blue States both have cities, but despite the FACT that they both have cities, Red States have higher overall murder rates.
People like this think we aren’t tough on crime, even though the United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. In sheer volume, we imprison more people than even China. And by incarceration rate, we lead Rwanda, Turkmenistan, El Salvador, and Cuba, amongst the top five.
Ranting and raving is not public policy.
I just reread my letter…no ranting and raving there. Empirical evidence as you may or may not know is that which is in front of your face. To paraphrase Mark Twain’s assessment of statistics, “there are lies, damn lies and statistics “. They are easily manipulated to mislead the naive. Democrat, leftist policies which everyone can see unfolding in front of their faces are causing crime rates to explode. I find repeating myself to be extremely tedious. Feel free to reread what ever I have said in the past but I will not keep repeating it.
Is that a promise? Thank you!
Such a wit!! A veritable Oscar Wilde!