38°
The 2022 BMW X7 kept rolling and hit a Mahwah police car after the trio bailed out on Route 17 shortly before 2:30 a.m. Nov. 25.
No serious injuries were reported.
Officers Jonathan Weber and Thomas Mitchell found 18-year-old Sergio Pierce hiding in a Dumpster off McKee Drive a short time later, Capt. Guido Bussinelli said.
Pierce tried to run but was immediately caught, the captain said.
A New Jersey State Police helicopter and Bergen County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit were brought in for an intense hours-long search for his two companions, with no luck.
It all began, Bussinelli said, when Officer Michael Gioiosa -- who was among a group of police who responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle on Bramshill Drive in Mahwah’s Rio Vista section – spotted the luxury SUV with New York license plates.
Seeing him, the driver hit the gas and sped off, he said.
Other officers converged on the area while learning that the BMW had been reported stolen out of New York City on Wednesday, the captain said.
Mitchell and Officer Michael Dombroski hit potential spots where the SUV was likely to emerge and set the tire-deflation devices.
As the vehicle exited Rio Vista, it hit a spike strip on northbound Route 202.
Lt. David Vega, Sgt. Kevin McCombs and Officer Michael Gioiosa continued to follow the BMW north on Route 202, then about a half-mile down Route 17, before both driver’s side tires gave out, Bussinelli said.
The SUV was still rolling when Pierce and his two accomplices bailed out at MacArthur Boulevard, Bussinelli said. It then hit Vega’s vehicle, he said.
Pierce went one way and the other two ran across the highway, with Vega, McCombs and Gioiosa in pursuit, the captain said.
Pierce remained held in the Bergen County Jail on Friday pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack on charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, hindering apprehension and receiving stolen property.
He also received several motor vehicle summonses.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes and receive free news updates.
