POUGHKEEPSIE – The Thursday police pursuit of a stolen vehicle that injured City of Poughkeepsie cops resulted in the capture of a man who has been on a crime spree in Dutchess County. Malachi Hunter, 31, formerly of Newark, New Jersey, was taken into custody on Gifford Avenue after attempting to run pedestrians over and damaging two police vehicles with the stolen car he was operating.
The Dodge Charger that Hunter was operating had been stolen earlier on Thursday from a residence in the Town of Fishkill. Fishkill Lieutenant Paul Schettino said that his officers responded at 7:30 a.m. on September 9 to a report of a black man who had attempted to gain entry into a vehicle on Route 9D near Dutchess Stadium. The homeowner confronted the man and he fled on foot. Fishkill officers canvassed the area in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the suspect.
At 9 a.m. on Thursday, in the same area, a resident of Magnolia Lane, near Dutchess Stadium, a man called 911 to report that his house was burglarized while he and his family were sleeping. His cell phone was taken and his 2018 Dodge Charger was removed from the driveway. “A person that is willing to enter a house when people are sleeping is a very dangerous criminal,” said Schettino. “Unfortunately, bail reform allowed this dangerous felon out on the street for Thursday’s crime spree, which included injuring police officers.”
Multiple police sources say that Hunter had recently been charged with several felonies for stealing credit cards at Vassar College in the Town of Poughkeepsie on September 6. He was supposedly issued appearance tickets on those charges.
City of Poughkeepsie Police charged Hunter with one count of felony criminal possession of stolen property, four misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, three felony counts of criminal mischief, one misdemeanor count of obstruction of governmental administration, and one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest. He was arraigned on the charges and then transported to Fishkill to face charges for his alleged Thursday morning crimes.
Hunter was processed by the Town of Fishkill Police and charged with the felonies of burglary of an occupied dwelling and grand larceny. The grand larceny charge is for the vehicle theft. He was arraigned before Fishkill Justice Harold Epstein and remanded to the Dutchess County Jail in lieu of a $25,000 bail.
