2 Men Charged In Connection With Suspicious Roadblock On NJ Turnpike
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- State Police believe a suspicious roadblock on the New Jersey Turnpike captured by a dashboard camera was a lapse in judgment and not a robbery attempt.
Motorist Ivan Tukhtin, who was driving on the Newark Bay Extension in Jersey City just after midnight Monday, recorded the video of a vehicle in the shoulder with two traffic cones in the road and a man standing nearby.
"What's going on?" Tukhtin asks the man in the video as he approaches the car. "Can I help you with something?"
Tukhtin then drove away as the man appeared to place his hand in his coat pocket.
"As a good Samaritan, you kind of give them the benefit of the doubt because you don't know what's going to happen, at which point I saw him reach into his pocket, at which point I knew something was going down, so I left," Tukhtin said.
State Police Capt. Stephen Jones says the cones were gone by the time troopers responding to reports of suspicious persons arrived. The troopers learned the car had run out of gas.
Troopers believe the men may have tried an inappropriate and dangerous way to get help.
The troopers charged the driver, 37-year-old Kareem Walston of Orange, with driving under the influence. His passenger, 36-year-old Hashen Clark of Jersey City, was charged with hindering.
The incident is still under investigation and further charges are possible, authorities said.
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