A man wanted by New Jersey authorities for kidnapping his girlfriend at gunpoint in Jersey City has been charged after leading officers with the NYPD on a wild chase through Brooklyn, cops said Friday.
Justin Gonzalez, 25, was arrested Thursday near the Belt Parkway’s Knapp Ave. exit in Sheepshead Bay, but not before a high-speed pursuit that resulted in multiple car crashes on the highway, including one collision involving an NYPD patrol car, according to law enforcement.
The Newark resident was charged Friday with criminal possession of a weapon, assault, reckless endangerment, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and unlawful fleeing a police officer, plus four moving violations, cops said.
Officers with the Jersey City Police Department were responding to an unknown caller reporting she was in danger when they received notification that the victim was in a moving vehicle, according to a statement the JCPD released Friday.
Jersey police tracked the suspect’s vehicle from Newark through Irvington and Elizabeth before notifying the NYPD as he crossed over the Goethals Bridge into Staten Island around 3:11 p.m.
NYPD officers picked up the suspect’s trail on the eastbound Belt Parkway as he came off the Verrazzano Bridge heading into Brooklyn around 20 minutes later, according to law enforcement.
The 31-year-old kidnapping victim was found in the car. She had suffered minor injuries after the suspect assaulted her, according to Jersey City cops.
Five police officers were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries they sustained during the pursuit, cops said.
In addition to the charges related to the hot pursuit in Brooklyn, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office has issued a warrant for Gonzalez’s arrest for the crimes allegedly committed in Jersey City.