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Police: Off-duty cop helps catch carjacker driving with victim on the hood

Officer Juan Guallpa was driving his personal vehicle when he saw a car driving erratically with a person “hanging on to the hood pleading for the driver to stop”

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Officer Juan Guallpa helped stop a fleeing carjacker with the victim still clinging to the hood August 4, 2020 in Essex County, New Jersey.

Photo/NJ Transit Police

By Noah Cohen
NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J.

ESSEX COUNTY, N.J. — An off-duty NJ Transit police officer helped stop a fleeing carjacker, who drove away with the victim clinging to the hood of his stolen car in Essex County, police said Tuesday.

Officer Juan Guallpa, a member of the emergency services unit, was driving on Belleville Avenue in Bloomfield when he saw a car driving erratically with a person “hanging on to the hood pleading for the driver to stop,” last Tuesday, according to a statement from the NJ Transit police on Twitter.

Guallpa tried to get the driver’s attention and called 9-1-1 while relaying details to dispatchers, authorities said. The car hit a parked truck and continued to JFK Boulevard and Belleville Avenue, where Guallpa joined Bloomfield police to take the driver into custody.

Bloomfield police identified the accused carjacker as Rasheed Hilton, a 30-year-old township resident. Hilton took off with the car, which was left running with the door open at a Davey Street apartment, township police said. In an attempt to stop the theft, the owner jumped on the hood.

Records show Hilton remained in custody at the Essex County jail on charges of carjacking and assault.

©2020 NJ Advance Media Group, Edison, N.J.

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