The mayhem began just after the morning rush on Thursday: carjackings, robberies and a single man with a black gun on the loose in Queens.
Nicolas Almonte
About eight hours later, a manhunt ended in Brooklyn with the arrest of Nicolas Almonte, 27, who is suspected of having taken at least three luxury vehicles at gunpoint, trying to steal a van, robbing a man of his cash on a Queens street and trying to wrest keys from a woman walking her dog.
The last attempt failed, the police said, after the woman told her attacker that the keys were not for a car.
The bizarre and frantic series of crimes began just after 9:30 a.m. on Borden Avenue near the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. There, the police said, a man stole a black Mercedes sedan from a woman and drove her through the neighborhood of brick warehouses and glassy developments for several minutes.
She managed to escape without injury at an intersection near Queens Plaza, where the man, too, fled the car and, brandishing the gun, immediately tried to steal a Ford van. That attempt failed, the police said, but the next — at the same intersection — was successful.
For five minutes he drove that car, a gray 2007 Lexus, before leaving it less than a mile away, the police said. On foot, he approached the woman with the dog and also, nearby, robbed a truck driver of cash. He did not take the truck.
Around 10:30, the police said, the man stole yet another car — a gold 1996 Mercedes C280 — roughly a block from where the truck driver had been robbed.
The police publicly identified Mr. Almonte, who lives in Queens, as a suspect in the afternoon, and he was eventually arrested in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
It was not clear what set off the spree or why each car was abandoned so quickly.
A friend of Mr. Almonte’s said Mr. Almonte took medication for bipolar disorder but had been acting differently in the last few weeks, leading him to suspect Mr. Almonte was not taking his pills. “He was a sweetheart,” said the friend, Edgar Campos, who works with Mr. Almonte at a Long Island City scaffolding company, but “I told people to keep an eye on him because he looked like he was going crazy, that he might hurt himself or something.”
Mr. Campos said that Mr. Almonte, who was known as Beat Box around the warehouse because of his penchant for making rap beats, went to work at the company, Swing Staging, on Thursday morning.
Soon after, he told his boss that he was feeling sickly and left, Mr. Campos said.
The first carjacking took place less than a mile from the warehouse.
A woman answering phones for Swing Staging declined to comment.
Carjackings are relatively rare in New York City. Of the 2,034 vehicles reported to the police this year as stolen, only 45 were taken from their owners in the course of a robbery, the police said. In the period from Jan. 1 to May 5, 2012, 41 were taken in carjackings.
The number of such crimes has dropped over the past few years, according to police statistics, with 173 recorded in all of 2010; 167 in 2011; and 134 last year.
The police said the gun used in the carjackings on Thursday might have been a pellet gun or a fake weapon.
“He had mentioned he had bought a B.B. gun,” Mr. Campos said of Mr. Almonte, recalling a conversation they had this year. “I didn’t think much of it.”
New York Police Department
Nicolas Almonte
About eight hours later, a manhunt ended in Brooklyn with the arrest of Nicolas Almonte, 27, who is suspected of having taken at least three luxury vehicles at gunpoint, trying to steal a van, robbing a man of his cash on a Queens street and trying to wrest keys from a woman walking her dog.
The last attempt failed, the police said, after the woman told her attacker that the keys were not for a car.
The bizarre and frantic series of crimes began just after 9:30 a.m. on Borden Avenue near the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. There, the police said, a man stole a black Mercedes sedan from a woman and drove her through the neighborhood of brick warehouses and glassy developments for several minutes.
She managed to escape without injury at an intersection near Queens Plaza, where the man, too, fled the car and, brandishing the gun, immediately tried to steal a Ford van. That attempt failed, the police said, but the next — at the same intersection — was successful.
For five minutes he drove that car, a gray 2007 Lexus, before leaving it less than a mile away, the police said. On foot, he approached the woman with the dog and also, nearby, robbed a truck driver of cash. He did not take the truck.
Around 10:30, the police said, the man stole yet another car — a gold 1996 Mercedes C280 — roughly a block from where the truck driver had been robbed.
The police publicly identified Mr. Almonte, who lives in Queens, as a suspect in the afternoon, and he was eventually arrested in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
It was not clear what set off the spree or why each car was abandoned so quickly.
A friend of Mr. Almonte’s said Mr. Almonte took medication for bipolar disorder but had been acting differently in the last few weeks, leading him to suspect Mr. Almonte was not taking his pills. “He was a sweetheart,” said the friend, Edgar Campos, who works with Mr. Almonte at a Long Island City scaffolding company, but “I told people to keep an eye on him because he looked like he was going crazy, that he might hurt himself or something.”
Mr. Campos said that Mr. Almonte, who was known as Beat Box around the warehouse because of his penchant for making rap beats, went to work at the company, Swing Staging, on Thursday morning.
Soon after, he told his boss that he was feeling sickly and left, Mr. Campos said.
The first carjacking took place less than a mile from the warehouse.
A woman answering phones for Swing Staging declined to comment.
Carjackings are relatively rare in New York City. Of the 2,034 vehicles reported to the police this year as stolen, only 45 were taken from their owners in the course of a robbery, the police said. In the period from Jan. 1 to May 5, 2012, 41 were taken in carjackings.
The number of such crimes has dropped over the past few years, according to police statistics, with 173 recorded in all of 2010; 167 in 2011; and 134 last year.
The police said the gun used in the carjackings on Thursday might have been a pellet gun or a fake weapon.
“He had mentioned he had bought a B.B. gun,” Mr. Campos said of Mr. Almonte, recalling a conversation they had this year. “I didn’t think much of it.”
