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Elderly man carjacked at gunpoint at Bel Air Plaza

Posted at 8:23 AM, Aug 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-17 06:26:40-04

An 87-year-old man was carjacked at gunpoint at the Bel Air Plaza early Tuesday morning.

Bel Air Police say the victim awoke and headed out for breakfast in Bel Air. They say he arrived too early, so he parked in his car in a parking lot and decided to wait for the nearby diner to open.

"He's in the Bel Air Plaza near the Starbucks and the Ross Dress for Less and he's approached by two black males wearing all black, black hoodies,” Sgt. Jim Lockard of the Bel Air Police Department said, “At that time, an independent witness sees what's going on, sees a gun in the hand of one of the suspects (and) had a hard time believing what she's seeing. This is Bel Air. This is probably not something that she's anticipating seeing here especially at 10 of six in the morning."

Once the car sped away, that witness came up to the victim and called police. The man wasn’t injured in the incident.

Bel Air officers arrived around 5:48 a.m. While they were searching the lot, they came across a gold, late-model Toyota Avalon, which had heavy front-end damage, which had been stolen during a similar carjacking in Northeast Baltimore last week.

In that case, police say a woman was taking her groceries out of her car in the 1600 block of East Belvedere Avenue when someone approached her from behind and implied they were holding a gun against her back and made off with her vehicle.

Tuesday's carjacking happened a short distance from Baltimore Pike, a main Bel Air thoroughfare, and some people expressed surprise at the brash, violent nature of the crime.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope things work out on the police side of things and get the people who've done this some help or whatever it requires,” Sonny Askew said. “This is a nice vicinity. It's a great place to live as far as we're concerned. I feel for the family and I hope the gentleman's okay."

The stolen car is described as a black, four-door 2015 BMW 3 Series. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP (562587).

*WMAR Staff contributed to this report.

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