Man arrested in New York after I-95 chase of truck loaded with stolen cooking oil
Ciara Longo de Freitas
The Baltimore Banner
August 27, 2024
The driver of a Penske truck carrying stolen Applebee’s cooking oil has been charged after a pursuit Tuesday along Interstate 95 that briefly shut down a portion of the highway and left a Harford County sheriff’s deputy injured.
Juan Yahir Quiroz Manzueta, 21, was taken into custody in New Rochelle, New York, shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said in a news conference. Manzueta is charged with attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault
Police identified Manzueta, whose last known address was in New York, as a suspect late Tuesday evening after matching fingerprints recovered from the vehicle, Gahler said.
New York state officials and U.S. Marshals assisted with Manzueta’s arrest, Gahler said, and he will be extradited and tried in Maryland.
Gahler said Manzueta intentionally struck Lt. Robert Burgess, a 29-year veteran of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, during a police pursuit along I-95.
“[Burgess] understands it, and we all understand very clearly, he is very lucky to be alive,” Gahler said. “He’s going to have a very long road to recovery, but I’m encouraged by his good spirits, his family’s support around him.”
Burgess was deploying stop sticks, a tire deflation device used by law enforcement, on Calvary Road when he was hit. He did not know the Penske truck was being chased due to a cooking oil theft, but thought the driver was behaving “erratically,” Gahler said.
The rental truck then hit a U.S. mail truck near MD-136 and Shucks Road and struck another vehicle at Carsins Run near Route 22 and the I-95 interchange. There were no injuries related to those crashes.
“These were intentional acts by a criminal attempting to elude arrest,” Gahler said. “And there will be charges on each one of these assaults.”
Another Harford County deputy in the pursuit used his vehicle to force the Penske truck driver off the road, Gahler said.
Officers approached the vehicle and found the driver had fled. The Aberdeen Applebee’s cooking oil was in a container inside the truck.
The driver allegedly made a call to an associate who picked him up at the Delaware Travel Plaza and drove him back to New York, Gahler said.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Department has made arrests for cooking oil thefts in the past. Gahler said Tuesday that people stealing cooking oil from businesses and selling it has been profitable.