Police charge suspect in Wheaton mall carjacking
Seat Pleasant hospital employee accused of taking car from father buckling in kids
This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. on July 7, 2010.
County police have arrested and charged a Seat Pleasant man in connection with the carjacking of a father who was with his two small children in the Westfield Wheaton Shopping Center last month, according to police spokesman Cpl. Dan Friz.
Tyrone Collington Jr., 23, of the 6100 block of Addison Road, was arrested July 1 and charged with one count of armed carjacking, one count of armed robbery, three counts of first-degree assault and one count of the use of a handgun in a violent crime. He is being held on $75,000 bond in the Montgomery County Detention Center.
Shortly after 8 p.m. June 22 in a parking lot outside the Crisp N' Juicy restaurant in the Westfield Wheaton mall, a father reported that he was buckling his children in their car seats when he was approached by another man who brandished a handgun and demanded the keys to his black Honda Civic. The father handed over the keys and removed his children from the car, and the suspect fled in the vehicle, according to police reports.
Two days later, Fairfax County Police learned of an attempted carjacking at about 11 p.m. near the George Mason University campus. The suspect obtained the keys to a BMW but was unable to start it because the car had a high-end ignition system, Friz said. The suspect then returned to the stolen Honda and fled from the area. The person whose car he allegedly attempted to steal gave chase and eventually flagged down a Virginia State Police Trooper. Friz said the suspect eventually abandoned the Honda and fled on foot.
Detectives recovered Collington's driver's license from the Honda as well as his photo security guard ID from Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, where he worked, according to court records. They issued a warrant for his arrest June 28.
Washington Adventist Hospital spokeswoman Lydia Parris said Collington worked at the hospital until Sept. 19, 2006.
A defense attorney for Collington had not yet been listed in online court records as of Tuesday.