{"id":98853,"date":"2026-01-13T16:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98853\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:49:08","slug":"driver-sentenced-in-box-truck-rampage-that-damaged-more-than-30-cars-on-staten-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98853\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver sentenced in box-truck rampage that damaged more than 30 cars on Staten Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Prison awaits for a New Jersey man who was convicted in a box truck rampage that left a path of destruction across two states \u201cand jeopardized the lives of dozens of NYPD officers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Michael Rompa, 49, was sentenced Jan. 6 to eight years in prison in connection with the 2023 incident. <\/p>\n

Justice Mario F. Mattei handed down the pre-arranged sentence in state Supreme Court, St. George, after the defendant pleaded guilty in September to two counts of second-degree assault<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Rompa took officers on a reckless four-mile chase across our borough… damaging more than 30 vehicles… and jeopardized the lives of dozens of NYPD officers,\u201d said District Attorney Michael E. McMahon. \u201cVehicular violence, especially committed against members of law enforcement, cannot be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to thank NYPD officers, detectives and Assistant District Attorneys Adam Silberlight, Melanie Sommer and Arda Ozdinc for their work in pursuing a conviction in the case. <\/p>\n

Rompa\u2019s attorney, Michael Cirigliano, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rompa has ongoing cases in Middlesex County, New Jersey, regarding the same incident. He could face additional prison time if convicted there. <\/p>\n

A path of destruction\"MilesPolice had cordoned off a Stapleton intersection on Dec. 29, 2023, the morning after a miles-long police pursuit across the borough.(Owen Reiter for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

There was a moment during the police pursuit <\/a>on the night of Dec. 28, 2023, when Rompa could have maneuvered around an NYPD vehicle. But instead, \u201che drove through it,\u201d law enforcement sources who responded to the incident said at the time.<\/p>\n

When Rompa ultimately was pulled from the truck and handcuffed, he allegedly stated to police, \u201cwhat the f\u2014 did I do?\u201d according to the Daily News. <\/a><\/p>\n

The harrowing pursuit began in north New Jersey, where Rompa stole a W.B. Mason truck and the items inside, court documents alleged.<\/p>\n

He allegedly smashed into several police cars in the Garden State, as officers there gave chase toward the Hudson River while radioing ahead to the NYPD, the Daily News reported. <\/p>\n

\"BoxMore aftermath of a Dec. 28 police pursuit involving a stolen box truck that crossed state lines and involved dozens of police officers.(Owen Reiter for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

By the end of a four-mile police pursuit on Staten Island \u2014 which began with an attempted car stop in Dongan Hills and ended in Stapleton \u2014 several dozen vehicles were damaged, including multiple NYPD vehicles. Some of the vehicles were moving, some were parked and many were occupied, authorities said at the time.<\/p>\n

When officers initially tried to pull over the truck in Dongan Hills, Rompa backed into multiple NYPD vehicles and his truck became entangled with one of the squad cars. He then dragged the police car for several feet. <\/p>\n

Authorities said afterward that three ranking NYPD members and at least four patrol officers were injured in the ordeal. <\/p>\n

A woman who witnessed the tail end of the mayhem described it as a \u201creally crazy scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere had to be about 40 officers, uniformed and plain clothed\u201d the woman told the Advance\/SILive.com at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Prison awaits for a New Jersey man who was convicted in a box truck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-98853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}