New Haven 18-Year-Old Charged With Gunpoint Carjacking: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT —Tihaja Ortiz Tucker, 18, was arrested Friday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with carjacking, according to the Justice Department and the FBI.

Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut and David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division announced the arrest.

As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, the FBI's Safe Streets Violent Crime Task Force and several police departments have been investigating multiple violent carjackings that have occurred recently in Connecticut, the federal officials said. One carjacking involved a victim who had posted her vehicle for sale on Facebook Marketplace, they said.

On July 7, Ortiz-Tucker and others met the victim in Bridgeport to test drive the car. Afterwards, the victim reported that Ortiz-Tucker "reached into a black fanny pack-style pouch slung over his shoulder and pulled out a 9mm handgun and pointed it at her," prosecutors and investigators said. Ortiz-Tucker told her to "get out of the car or he was going to shoot her," per officials. She complied, and Ortiz drove away in her car, federal authorities said.

In a news release, Avery said that Ortiz-Tucker is also suspected of being involved in other gunpoint carjackings, including two carjackings of Uber drivers on May 2 and May 4. In both instances, an Uber driver picked up the carjacker in New Haven and drove to Wallingford, where their cars were taken from them, per prosecutors. Both cars were later recovered in the same area of Hamden.

Ortiz-Tucker appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector in New Haven and was ordered detained pending a detention hearing that is scheduled for July 26, Avery's release reads.

The complaint charges Ortiz-Tucker with conspiracy, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Ortiz-Tucker was also charged with possessing and brandishing a firearm in connection with a crime of violence, namely carjacking, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of at least seven years.

Avery stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Violent Crime Task Force, the Connecticut State Police and the Wallingford, New Haven, Hamden, Waterbury, and Bridgeport Police Departments. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah P. Karwan and Tara E. Levens.