Fentanyl Seized, BMW Recovered, K-9 Manhunt Ends With Arrests

NEW CASTLE, NY — A police chase that started with a car fleeing with a gas hose still attached, ended with a foot chase through backyards and K-9 units finding suspects hiding on the patio of a home.

Tuesday afternoon, just after 1 p.m., the Real Time Crime Center at Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne broadcast an alert that a stolen BMW was driving on North Bedford Road in Mount Kisco. As County Police officers responded to the call, a parking authority employee who heard the alert reported that he saw the vehicle in a gas station at North Bedford Road and Barker Street.

When a patrol car pulled into the gas station, the driver fled, even though the car was in the process of being fueled at the time. A station attendant was reportedly knocked to the ground and the gas pump hose was torn away. The attendant suffered cuts and bruises as a result, according to police.

The driver fled the wrong way on North Moger Avenue and onto Route 133. The driver and two passengers later abandoned the car at Route 133 and Garey Drive in New Castle.

Westchester County and New Castle police set up a perimeter and began a search for the fleeing suspects. A female passenger, identified as Diane Patterson, was quickly taken into custody.

County Police Officer Brian Tierney and his tracking canine Genesee, a bloodhound, started a track from the stolen car.

The trail took them down Garey Drive, into a backyard and an adjacent wooded area and then back into the backyard of another home on Garey Drive. Two men, identified as the driver, Brandon McLaughlin and passenger Orlando Martinez were found hiding in a patio area of a home and were taken into custody.

McLaughlin, a 27-year-old Danbury, Connecticut resident, was charged with felony assault, felony criminal possession of stolen property, reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Passengers, 36-year-old Martinez from Waterbury, Connecticut and Patterson, were each charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance.

All three were charged with drug possession, police said, because several glassine bags of a narcotic containing fentanyl were found in the car after it was impounded. The 2011 BMW sedan was reported stolen by a Waterbury resident.

Martinez and Patterson were booked at the Mount Kisco precinct and released on their own recognizance. They are due in Mount Kisco Justice Court on Nov. 4. McLaughlin was held overnight, pending arraignment Thursday in Mount Kisco court.