New Rochelle police engaged four drug suspects Saturday night in a 45 minute, high-speed chase through New Rochelle, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Mount Vernon, Eastchester, and Scarsdale before winding up back in New Rochelle near Stratton Road where the suspects exited their vehicle and fled into the surrounding neighborhood on foot. Two suspects were captured right away, a third about 20 minutes later and a fourth not until 4 hours later when he was found hiding in the back of a house in New Rochelle’s North End.
Police officers from New Rochelle, Eastchester, Scarsdale and Westchester County pursued in cars while Westchester County Police’s aviation unit followed in a helicopter. A County K-9 Unit also engaged in the pursuit.
The chase began around 9 p.m. Saturday night after police responded to a call from a pharmacist at the CVS Store at 309 E. Main Street in New Rochelle, NY. The store had been alerted by the CVS Store in Larchmont that a woman had presented what appeared to be a forged prescription. A short time later a woman presented what appeared to be a forged prescription for liquid codeine to the New Rochelle CVS store. The woman was told she would have to come back to pick up the filled prescription.
New Rochelle Police Detective Captain said that while the pharmacist was on the phone with police, the woman returned to pick up the liquid codeine. As New Rochelle police arrived, the suspects were leaving the CVS store in a grey Jeep. Detectives pulled the SUV over near the store.
The driver of the car, Naeem Kearney, 26, of 41 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Newark, NJ, stopped but then took off as New Rochelle police engaged in pursuit. The vehicle got onto I-95 heading south near Exit 16 then exited I-95 at Exit 15 near the Home Depot in New Rochelle. Kearney then drove south on Route 1 through Pelham and then into Pelham Manor. Kearney drove throughout the area, including around the Split Rock Golf Course before getting onto the Hutchison River Parkway northbound at which the point the Westchester County Police joined the pursuit. Kearney got off the Hutch at the Weaver Street exit and headed towards New Rochelle on Stratton Road.
Kearney stopped the vehicle near the intersection of Stratton Road and Stanton Circle and the four suspects exited the vehicle. Westchester County police officer Matthew Notaro of the County K-9 Unit, struck the stopped car from behind, sustaining minor injuries. Two of the suspects were arrested right away.
Kieran O’Leary, spokesman for Westchester County Police, said Notaro had his K-9 officer, Seneca, a bloodhound, with him in the car. Notato and Seneca picked up the scent of Naeem Kearney and tracked. Notaro and Seneca where there when Naeem Kearney was arrested. The fourth suspect was arrested in the back of a house on Stuart Drive.
The Westchester County helicopter remained over the area using its infra-red and thermal-imaging cameras to assist police on the ground with establishing a perimeter for the search of the 3rd and 4th suspect.
Arrested were four New Jersey residents:
Amber Higgins, 21, 75 Mercer Street, Newark, NJ – NRPD charged Higgins with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance (felonies), second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument (felony).
William Boyd, 34, 301 Osborne Terrace, Newark, NJ – NRPD charged Boyd with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance (felonies), second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument (felony).
Christle Lewis, 25, 156 Market Street, Garfield, NJ – NRPD charged Lewis with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance (felonies), second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument (felony).
Naeem Kearney, 26, 41 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Newark, NJ – NRPD charged Kearney with two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance (felonies), criminal possession of a controlled substance, (misdemeanor) second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument (felony), attempted second-degree assault of a police officer (felony), third-degree unlawful fleeing the scene (misdemeanor), first-degree reckless endangerment (a felony). Westchester County Police charged Kearney with reckless endangerment, 2nd degree (misdemeanor), reckless driving (misdemeanor) for his actions while driving on the Hutchison River Parkway.
Chris Eberhart of AOL Patch adds:
[Kearney] told police his car broke down and he did not have a cellphone. When police called the number he provided, it rang in the police headquarters because it was confiscated as evidence. [Kearney] was then arrested…One of the females arrested claimed she did not know the three other suspects and was paid $20 to drop off and pay for the fake prescriptions. She told police she had been doing this for two weeks.
Higgins, Boyd and Kearney are all from Newark, NJ and bear multiple tattoos suggesting a gang-affiliation. Lewis is from Garfield, NJ and does not have any tattoos suggesting that Lewis the suspect claiming that she did not have any prior association with the other three. Lewis is the only who claimed not to be employed. Higgens told police she was a secretary, Boyd a “barber” and Kearney a “writter (sic)”.