PEEKSKILL – City police in Peekskill responding to a 5 a.m. complaint of loud music coming from a car on Highland Avenue on Wednesday resulted in the arrest of three suspects in a car stolen at gunpoint in New York City on Tuesday. A loaded handgun was also seized.
Three of the four occupants of the vehicle were arrested and charged with felony criminal possession of stolen property for being in the stolen vehicle and criminal possession of a weapon, a violent felony.
Ethan Arroyo, 21, 19-year-old Sandro Soto, and a 17-year-old young man were arrested. Arroyo and Soto were arraigned in Peekskill City Court on December 30 and remanded to Westchester County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail each. The 17-year-old was arraigned by Westchester County Court and remanded to a juvenile detention facility.
The fourth occupant of the vehicle, a 14-year-old female is a missing runaway from a group home. She also has felony warrants in another jurisdiction. She was remanded to the custody of a juvenile detention facility.
Police Lieutenant Jack Galusha said that officers Mike Nolte and Delmar Pereira responded to the 600 block of Highland Avenue and found a white Volkswagen Jetta with loud music playing through its stereo and occupied by four people. Officer Nolte discovered that the Jetta was a reported stolen vehicle from New York City on Tuesday.
The officers searched the four occupants and the car. In the vehicle they found a loaded .380 semi-automatic pistol. None of the four occupants possessed a pistol license.
“This incident is a crystal-clear example of how a so-called routine call of a noise complaint can rapidly escalate to a potentially deadly encounter with dangerous criminals,” said Galusha. “This department and its community are proud and grateful for these officers’ actions and bravery in taking an illegal loaded firearm off the streets of Peekskill.”
