Car Chase, Search Leads to Two Arrests in Pleasantville
By Andrew Vitelli
A stolen car fleeing police crashed into a Pleasantville backyard early Thursday morning, leading to a multi-department search ending in the arrest of two men later that morning.
Karon Broddie, a 24-year-old Brooklyn resident, and Mt. Vernon resident Ernest Nicholas, also 24, were arrested following an extensive search after the suspects allegedly fled towards downtown Chappaqua.
At around 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Pleasantville police attempted to pull over a 2015 Honda Civic near Memorial Plaza when the car, which turned out to have been stolen, fled up Manville Road, police say. The car attempted to turn onto Bedford Road but was unable to make the turn, crashing into the backyard of a Bedford Road residence, with the two suspects fleeing the vehicle.
Several police departments, including those of New Castle, Mount Pleasant, and the Department of Environmental Protection, helped establish a perimeter while helicopters from the Westchester County Police Aviation Unit and K9 units from the New York State Police and MTA Police joined in the search. Officers from the Greenburgh Police Department went to the home of the registered owner of the Civic, who told police she had not realized that her car had been stolen.
At 7 a.m., police received a report of two men entering the backyard of a home in the Pierce Drive area, between downtown Pleasantville and Chappaqua. Police searched the area on the west side of Washington Avenue, south of the Chappaqua train station, and the Westchester County Aviation Unit used thermal imaging to detect the heat signature of two people hiding in an overgrown area. The area was all but impossible to search from the ground, police say.
Police soon arrested one of the suspects, while the other evaded capture. Shortly after, however, police received reports of a man emerging from the brush and heading towards the Chappaqua train station. There, officers located him on the train platform and took him into custody.
Broddie, who police say was the driver, has been charged with criminal possession of stolen property while Nicholas was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.
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