Two NY carjackers crash Jeep into school bus carrying 17 children after robbing woman at knifepoint
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: A trail of chaos unravels in upstate New York after two carjackers steal a Jeep from a woman at knifepoint, ensued police in a short chase, and then crash the stolen vehicle into a school bus carrying seventeen children. After the car crash, the suspects, namely Adeosun Hughes, 23, and Maliq McCullough, 20, attempted to run on foot but were apprehended, said Rochester police.
The haywire incident first took place on Costar Street in Rochester at around 4 pm on March 15, when the 51-year-old red Jeep owner was loading things into the vehicle and was approached by a knife-wielding man. The suspect grabbed a necklace and lanyard from her neck, leaving her injured, and fled the scene with her vehicle. However, less than an hour later, police spotted the stolen vehicle and ordered them to pull over, but the suspects sped away, prompting a police chase that ended in a drastic collision. Fortunately, all of the children and the bus driver remain uninjured.
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What happened on Costar Street in Rochester?
"The officers pursued the vehicle. At one point the vehicle was heading the wrong way on Roycroft approaching the intersection at Roycroft and Carter," Rochester Police Captain Adam Radens told News10NBC. The car was speeding the wrong way down the one-way residential street until at the intersection, when an onlooker captured the dramatic crash. "At that same moment, a northbound bus, a school bus, was trying to attempt to cross that intersection when the stolen vehicle did crash into the front of it," Radens added. In the video, cops could be heard yelling at the two fleeing suspects running in opposite directions to get on the ground, but both were arrested later.
Rochester Police and Rochester Prep Charter School release statement in wake of the tragedy
McCullough was charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree assault, and both third and fourth-degree larceny. Hughes has been charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Following the incident, police released a statement about the students who attend Rochester Prep Charter School. "Thankfully, the driver and every student was uninjured as a result of the crash," the Rochester Police Department said in a statement.
(ABC7 YouTube screengrab)
"The city school district was advised of the accident and made arrangements to have each student transported home," reported Daily Mail. Adam Urbanski, head of the Rochester Teachers Association spoke of the chaotic event and said, "If you can't feel safe in a school parking lot, you're not likely to feel safe at school, and if teachers don't feel safe you can bet that the children are not safe either."