Chester Man Indicted In Brazen Shopping Plaza Carjacking: DA

CHESTER, NY — A local resident is accused of forcibly stealing a vehicle that had been parked at a local shopping plaza while an elderly woman sat inside.

The woman’s daughter was injured as she stood in front of the car, trying to block the carjacker from leaving, authorities said.

The incident happened Friday at 11:52 a.m. at the Chester Mall at 78 Brookside Ave., according to police.

Edward Keegan, 34, of Chester, was arraigned Tuesday in Orange County Court. Keegan has been charged in an indictment with second-degree robbery (two counts), second-degree assault, fourth-degree grand larceny, and second-degree unlawful imprisonment, according to Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler.

A woman, the driver, went into a store in the shopping center and left her mother in the front passenger seat of the parked car, when Keegan got in and tried to drive away, according to the DA’s office.

When the mother tried to stop him, Keegan struck her in the leg repeatedly, prosecutors said. The woman who had gone into the store came outside and tried to stop Keegan from leaving by standing in front of the vehicle.

Keegan is accused of continuing to drive at the woman, hitting and injuring her. The mother was able to get out of the car before Keegan drove away, officials said.

Chester police responded to the scene and spotted the white Nissan Sentra within a half hour and tried to pull it over. Keegan refused to comply, drove away “at a high rate of speed” and then crashed the vehicle on State Route 17 near Exit 130, according to police, who took him into custody.

The case was presented to a grand jury on Monday. Keegan was arraigned Tuesday before Judge Craig Stephen Brown and remanded to Orange County Jail. He is due back in court on March 25.

“No one could have expected this type of unprovoked violent encounter during a routine shopping trip,” Hoovler said, in a press release on Wednesday. “I am grateful that no one was more seriously injured in this incident.”