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The chase began on Main Street in Ramsey shortly after an 2021 Audi Q7 was stolen from a home on Deer Trail North near Darlington County Park around 12:45 a.m., Ramsey Police Chief Bryan Lyman said.
Officer Christopher Finn pursued the black SUV onto southbound Route 17, where a white Mercedes that had been reported stolen out of Ridgewood joined it, the chief said.
Moments later, Paramus Police Officer Michael Cleary got behind the Audi in the area of Midland Avenue, Paramus Deputy Police Chief Robert Guidetti said.
Cleary activated his emergency lights and siren, he said, but both vehicles kept going.
After exiting into the west parking lot of the Garden State Plaza, the SUV struck a fence and became disabled, the deputy chief said.
Cleary quickly seized the driver, Dominique Fuller, 20, and two passengers, Isaiah McIntosh-Martinez, 19, and a juvenile, all of Newark, without incident, Guidetti said.
Police from Saddle River, meanwhile, chased the Mercedes for several miles before terminating the pursuit at Paterson Plank Road in Rutherford due to public safety concerns, Saddle River Police Chief Jason Cosgriff said.
Despite their ages, Fuller and McIntosh-Martinez already have rapidly-growing criminal histories due in large part to a state bail reform law that requires their release soon after they're arrested.
Both men were sent to the Bergen County Jail this time to await first appearances in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
Charges filed by police in Paramus and Ramsey include receiving stolen property, eluding law enforcement, hindering arrest and employing a juvenile in the commission of a crime.
Police issued a delinquency complaint for joyriding to the boy before turning him over to his mother. A hearing will be scheduled behind closed doors in the Family Part of Superior Court in Hackensack.
Fuller also received motor vehicle summonses for reckless driving, careless driving, unsafe driving, not wearing a seat belt and driving without a license, Guidetti said.
Area police are now trying to identify whoever was in the second vehicle.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Local police in Bergen and Passaic counties have teamed up to catch an increasing number of vehicle thieves.
Acting Attorney New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin made it possible earlier this year when he removed restrictions placed on police in December 2020 that prevented them from pursuing all but the most violent offenders -- murderers, rapists and robbers, basically.
The idea had been to reduce the number of chases that could hurt or kill civilians or officers.
New Jersey got a different result, unfortunately.
The number of urban intruders from out of the area exploded in response to the volatile combination of bail reform and no-pursuit orders.
Thieves who nearly always worked at night began operating in the daytime, openly defying authorities to stop them -- or hold them if they did.
Platkin removed the restraints, allowing law enforcement officers to chase the drivers of stolen vehicles, as well as any who are tied to weapons or explosives possession, home burglaries and bias intimidation.
READ: NJ Police Can Now Pursue Stolen Vehicles, AG Says
This past Monday night, a trio of Newark thieves were captured on the FDU campus in Teaneck after they led police on a stolen car chase out of Franklin Lakes.
READ: Stolen Car Trio Nabbed On FDU Campus After Pursuit
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