NORTHRIDGE : N. Hollywood Man Held in Carjacking

A 24-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing from a Northridge intersection a Mercedes that was later found crashed and abandoned, Los Angeles police said.

Martin Baptist, 47, was headed east on Lassen Street about 8 p.m. Tuesday when he saw two men standing at Lassen and Reseda Boulevard, Detective Tony Foti said. As Baptist tried to make a right turn, one of the men ran up to his car and smashed the passenger-side window with a rock.

Police said the man dove through the broken glass and shouted orders at Baptist. Foti said the suspect told Baptist: “I have a gun. I’ll kill you. Stop the car.”

Baptist complied with his assailant, who did not display a gun, Foti said. The robber then got behind the wheel of the 1984 gray Mercedes SEL and drove east on Lassen a few blocks before turning right on Lindley Avenue, where he crashed the car into a fence and fled on foot.

Just hours after the robbery, a man walked into a fire station at Reseda and Lassen and told firefighters that he was a pedestrian who had been injured in a car accident, Foti said.

Noticing that the man fit the description of the carjack suspect, firefighters called police. Later at a hospital, the carjack victim identified the injured man as the person who had taken his car, police said.

Damien Cord of North Hollywood was arrested on suspicion of one count of robbery carjack, Foti said. Cord sustained a sprained ankle and cuts and bruises from the crash. Police continued to search for the second man Wednesday.