A woman suffered minor injuries after a man reportedly punched her and dragged her before carjacking her vehicle in the Walmart parking lot Sunday, Capt. Timothy Wagner, the Kearny Police Department’s public-information officer said this morning.
According to Capt. Wagner:
On Sept. 13 at 6:36 p.m., patrol officers responded to a call at the Walmart parking lot reporting a carjacking.
The victim, a 36-year-old woman from the Bronx, reported she was loading groceries into her 2020 Hyundai Elantra and noticed a man pushing a shopping cart nearby who appeared to be collecting garbage.
When the victim got into the driver’s seat, the man approached, punched her in the head and dragged her out of her car. There was a struggle, during which time the man was able to enter the driver’s seat and begin to drive away in the victim’s car.
The victim held on and was dragged for a distance before letting go.
The suspect fled in the victim’s car before police arrived.
The victim sustained abrasions to both arms and both legs from having been dragged and swelling to the forehead from having been punched. She was treated at the scene by EMS, but was not hospitalized.
On Sept. 14 at approximately 1 a.m., the Newark Police Department notified KPD that they were in pursuit of the victim’s vehicle into Jersey City on Rt. 440. The vehicle later crashed into a utility pole in Bayonne.
The driver refused medical aid.
Newark police arrested the driver, Eduardo Perez III, 28, of Rahway, who was alone in the car.
It is not immediately clear whether Perez was the one who conducted the alleged carjacking, though police say he matched the description of the suspect “to a tee.”
The carjacking investigation is still active on KPD’s end.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.
