Carjackings Up In El Paso Compared To Last Year

By ABC-7 Anchor/Reporter Celina Avila

EL PASO — Imagine being forced out of your car against your will while being threatened. That’s what two people in our community had to go through this past week.

“We have seen a small increase in vehicles that were taken during the course of a robbery,” said El Paso Police Spokesman Chris Mears.

On two separate occasions andin two different parts of town,people in our community were forced out of their cars during carjackings.

Monday,a local woman wasfollowed to her home in SouthEl Paso froma grocery store. Once there, she opened the door and a man pointed a gun at her, demanded the keys, jumped in her Ford Mustang and sped off.

“Give me the car keys, give me the car keys, I don’t want to do nothing to you, I don’t want to kill you,” said Brenda Castillo, describing what her aunt claims the alleged carjacker told her during the ordeal. “She said that she just felt a gun on her back. “

Castillotells ABC-7 her aunt’s young daughter was with her at the time. “She thinks she saw him in the parking lot at Albertson’s.”

The alleged carjacker was not alone, according to Castillo, who said she watched the entire ordeal from inside her aunt’s home. “There was two other guys waiting for him. He took off and he picked up the other guys and then they just left.”

Two days later, another carjacking on the West Side on Redd Road. Police tell ABC-7 a 16 year-old was approached by a man who identified himself as a detective and told him he needed to check his vehicle.

Once the suspect started to drive away, the teenager tried to stop him but was hit on the neck and head.Police said thesuspectthen lost control, crashed and went up a median.

So far this year, there have been 24 carjackings compared to 18 at the same timelast year. Still Mears believes residents should not worry about a new trend.”The numbers are too small, especially when you’re talking about this city and the size that we are.”