STATEN ISLAND — An ex-con has been charged with killing two men and then leading police on a wild goose chase around Staten Island — carjacking a Hummer, being shot at on the Verrazano bridge and trying to steal a stick-shift car that he couldn't drive, police said.
The suspect, Tyrell Brown, 25, had been released from prison in May after serving more than four years for robbery.
His crime spree began Sunday before 5 a.m. when he fatally shot Kuwan Collins, 40, of New Jersey, in the head outside 367 Britton Ave., police said.
Less than 10 minutes later, he shot and killed Devin Powell, 23, of Mariners Harbor, across the street from 86 Arlington Place, police said.
Then, just after 6 a.m., Brown carjacked a 29-year-old man's black Hummer at gunpoint in front of 55 Holland Ave. in Mariners Harbor, police said.
Brown drove to Brooklyn and was trying to re-enter Staten Island over the Verrazano Bridge about 1:15 a.m. Monday when MTA police pulled him over at the toll plaza, police said.
Though Brown initially stopped, he sped off as officers fired at him, crashing through a roadblock, police said. He fled on foot after totaling the Hummer at Hylan Boulevard and Narrows Road, the NYPD said.
Brown remained at large until Tuesday night. About 9:40 p.m. he tried to steal a Honda Civic outside 364 Walker St., in Mariners Harbor, but it was a stick shift and he didn't know how to drive it, police said. He again took off on foot.
Police finally caught up to him about 10:25 p.m. near Osgood Avenue and Mosel Avenue, the NYPD said.
Brown, who lives in Mariners Harbor, faces a slew of charges stemming from the multi-day crime spree including murder, robbery, attempted assault, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident with an injury, police said.
Investigators are also trying to tie him to at least one other Staten Island murder that happened over the weekend, an NYPD spokesman said.
Brown was arrested eight times between 2002 and 2009, police said. His first arrest was for punching someone in the head, an NYPD spokesman said.
In August 2009 he was convicted of a robbery and was released on May 8, prison records show.
His other arrests involved assaults, armed robbery, defacing a firearm and several sealed records, police said.
