The search for suspects in a larceny from BJ’s Wholesale Club in Amherst early Friday afternoon led to a multi-vehicle crash later on Buffalo’s East Side, before officers from both departments apprehended one of two suspects who had fled the crash scene on foot.
Wilfredo Roman Garcia, who has no listed local address, has been charged with a felony count of criminal possession of stolen property, reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest.
The other suspect remained at large.
It all began when Amherst police responded to a 12:48 p.m. larceny call at BJ’s, 3056 Sheridan Drive, where an employee provided them with a description and license-plate number for the fleeing vehicle, a black Chrysler, Lt. Patrick Lucey said. An Amherst police detective who already was in the city took the vehicle’s information and went to the registered owner’s address.
While there, he spotted the arrival of a vehicle matching that description.
“Our detective gets out of the car, identifies himself, and they take off,” Lucey said.
Before the detective could give chase, that fleeing vehicle slammed into a moving car, a parked car and a tree, before the two occupants fled.
Amherst police went to the scene and found inside the vehicle some of the merchandise reported stolen from BJ’s, before they impounded the vehicle, they said.
Wilfredo Roman Garcia, who has no listed local address, has been charged with a felony count of criminal possession of stolen property, reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest.
The other suspect remained at large.
It all began when Amherst police responded to a 12:48 p.m. larceny call at BJ’s, 3056 Sheridan Drive, where an employee provided them with a description and license-plate number for the fleeing vehicle, a black Chrysler, Lt. Patrick Lucey said. An Amherst police detective who already was in the city took the vehicle’s information and went to the registered owner’s address.
While there, he spotted the arrival of a vehicle matching that description.
“Our detective gets out of the car, identifies himself, and they take off,” Lucey said.
Before the detective could give chase, that fleeing vehicle slammed into a moving car, a parked car and a tree, before the two occupants fled.
Amherst police went to the scene and found inside the vehicle some of the merchandise reported stolen from BJ’s, before they impounded the vehicle, they said.