CLEVELAND, Ohio — Federal prosecutors have charged a Cleveland man in connection with a carjacking at the Sheetz gas station in Twinsburg.
KeLeil Crawford, 20, put a gun to the back of a man’s head at the gas station and sped away in the man’s 2016 Lincoln MKZ, an FBI agent wrote in court records.
Crawford was charged Friday in federal court in Akron with carjacking. He was ordered to remain jailed until a detention hearing on Friday.
Crawford’s defense attorney, Justin Roberts, declined comment.
Twinsburg police and FBI agents linked Crawford to the crime with security video of the robbery and surveillance. They also used license plate readers and evidence found on Crawford’s cellphone, according to court records.
The robbery happened about 3:45 a.m. on March 10 at the gas station on East Aurora Road near Interstate 480.
The man told police and FBI agents that he bought food inside the gas station and went to get back in his car, which was parked at a gas pump.
As he opened the driver’s door, Crawford, wearing a ski mask, grabbed him from behind. Crawford put a gun to his head and said: “Give me your keys or you’re going to die,” according to court records.
Crawford got in the car and sped west on East Aurora Road. The car that Crawford arrived in followed the stolen car. Both men inside that car also wore ski masks, according to court records.
Investigators tracked the car to Crawford’s home on Grovewood Avenue in Cleveland. An officer used a spare key fob, drove by the house and hit the lock button, causing the lights on the stolen car to flash in Crawford’s driveway, according to court records.
Later in the day, officers watched as Crawford pulled out of the driveway and eventually onto Interstate 90, where the car broke down and started smoking, court records say.
Twinsburg police arrested two of the three people in the car that got out to inspect the car.
Crawford, however, jumped back in the car and sped away. Officers pursued him until he jumped out of the moving vehicle. He dropped a backpack as he ran and managed to evade arrest.
Investigators found an AK-47 style pistol in the bag, along with a cellphone. Officers searched the phone and found it belonged to Crawford.
They also noted in court records that shortly after the robbery, Crawford searched “hpw [sic] to shut off my Lincoln,” “what kind of gas does lincoln mkz take,” “how to take off my lincoln gps” and “how to cut off my lincoln mobile.”
The phone’s location data also put Crawford’s cellphone at the scene of the robbery, court records say.
