WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - Authorities in Maryland responding to a reported car theft found the suspect already detained by a third party who held him in a chokehold until officers arrived.
Cutler J. Keene, 28, was arrested Sunday on charges including unlawful taking of a vehicle, the Carroll County Times reports. A woman told Westminster police that she was getting ready for work that morning when she heard a vehicle start in the driveway and looked outside to see her car moving away, according to a statement of probable cause.
She said she woke a man in the home and they went outside, where they found Keene and an accomplice in her car. She said she knocked on the driver’s side window and the driver fled on foot. She said she looked over to her companion and saw him wrestling with Keene, who had been in the car’s passenger seat. That’s when she called 911.
The man who wrestled with Keene told officers that he had grabbed Keene by his backpack and threw him to the ground, where he held Keene in a chokehold until authorities arrived, the statement says. Authorities didn’t immediately release the identity of the other man accused of trying to steal the car.
Court records didn’t list an attorney for Keene, who’s set to appear in court in February.
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