Edison: Man Posed as Cop, Beat Woman, Stole Her Car Tuesday, Police Report

SAYREVILLE, NJ - A 44-year-old Sayreville man has been arrested and charged with posing as a police officer, beating a female driver and stealing her car in Edison before crashing head-on into another vehicle in Sayreville, Sayreville police announced Wednesday afternoon.

John Spina, 44, of Sayreville, approached the female motorist in the parking lot of the Wick Plaza shopping mall on Rt. 1 in Edison Wednesday at 1:16 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10. He showed the woman a badge and a gun. When the woman rolled down her car window, Spina began punching her, got into her car and continued punching her before she was able to flee, Sayreville Police Chief John Zebrowski said.

Spina drove from the scene in the woman’s car, and police located him driving on Washington Road in Sayreville. That's where police pursued him and he fled in a car cash, sideswiping two oncoming vehicles and striking the third vehicle head-on. Washington Road in Sayreville was shut down for hours Wednesday afternoon.

Detectives determined that the head-on crash rose to the level of attempted murder. The driver he hit was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, where she was treated and released.

Spina continued to drive from the scene, and when the stolen car he was driving ran off the road and became lodged in shrubbery on the side of the road, he jumped out and ran. Police followed him and quickly apprehended him.

The woman he originally punched was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where she was treated and released, police said. Spina was charged with attempted murder, carjacking, two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon, two counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of impersonation of a law enforcement officer and being a certain person prohibited from having a weapon due to a prior, unrelated criminal offense.

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