OAKLAND COUNTY

Accused trailer-hitch-wielding carjacker arrested

Candice Williams
The Detroit News

A 28-year-old Pontiac man was arrested Tuesday after crashing a vehicle he allegedly carjacked from outside of a Pontiac business, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

According to officials, the incident started around 5:45 p.m. at the Auto Zone in the 1500 block of N. Perry Street.

Deputies were called to the business after a man walked into the store and said that he was running from Oakland County deputies who were “attempting to kill him and that he was being shot at.”

The man allegedly picked up two trailer hitches and swung them at customers. He then ran out of the store and allegedly stole a black 1997 Nissan Maxima that was parked and left running with a 21-year-old Pontiac woman sitting in the passenger seat, police said.

“The subject swung a trailer hitch at her (and) accelerated away in reverse as the passenger jumped from the vehicle,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a report Wednesday. “The subject then fled the parking lot driving the stolen Nissan northbound on N. Perry Street.”

As deputies responded to the carjacking incident, they learned that less than three miles away, officers with the Auburn Hills Police Department were on the scene of an accident at Walton Boulevard and Squirrel Road involving the Nissan Maxima.

The suspect was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment, officials said.

Detectives from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Auto Theft Unit continue to investigate.

cwilliams@detroitnews.com

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