Four suspects are in custody and one remains at large following a middle-of-the-day theft of more than $90,000 worth of high-end handbags in less than 30 seconds from an East Hampton Village store on Thursday.
The suspects, three men and two women, then led multiple law enforcement agencies on a high-speed chase through the village and west on Sunrise Highway until their vehicle, a black Dodge Durango, got a flat tire in Manorville near Exit 69 on the Long Island Expressway.
The incident took place around 1:30 p.m. at Balenciaga. According to East Hampton Village police, an officer on patrol quickly spotted the Durango and pursued it to attempt a traffic stop, but the suspects did not comply. "The pursuit was called off so as not to create an unsafe situation to the public when the vehicle's driver began driving recklessly at a high rate of speed," Village Police Lt. Jeffrey Erickson said in a press release.
On the lookout for the suspects, a state trooper saw the Durango in the vicinity of Westhampton Beach on Sunrise Highway. After the S.U.V. got a flat tire on the expressway, all five suspects fled on foot into the woods. A Suffolk County Police helicopter, county and state police K-9 units, and Seventh Precinct officers were called in, and by 6:30 p.m. four of the five suspects had been apprehended and were held at the New York State Police barracks in Riverside.
Each charged with one count of second-degree grand larceny and one count of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, which are felonies, the four suspects were arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Friday afternoon. State police said an arraignment in Suffolk County First District Court is also pending.
The four defendants charged are all from Newark, N.J. They are Ali Abul Harris, 28, Jamal Revelt Johns, 25, Wazir Roberts, 24, and Bahseemah Tamika Davis, 34.
According to state police, "numerous handbags" were recovered after the suspects were apprehended.
Around the same time the incident was unfolding on Thursday afternoon, East Hampton School District officials initiated a 10-minute lockout at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, during which all students and staff members stay indoors for safety reasons. Karen Kuneth, the school principal, confirmed that the lockout was related to the theft and high-speed chase.
"There was no threat to our building at any time," she said in an email to families at 2:01 p.m. on Thursday.
This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.