City man charged in carjacking

A New Haven man was arrested Friday for the armed carjacking of a woman who posted her car for sale on Facebook and he may be responsible for other similar crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut.

Tihaja Ortiz-Tucker, 18, was charged with conspiracy and brandishing a firearm in connection with a crime of violence, federal officials said.

Ortiz-Tucker accosted a woman who had posted her vehicle for sale on Facebook Marketplace on July 7 after meeting her on Thompson Street in Bridgeport, officials said.

Along with other individuals, Ortiz-Tucker test drove her car — then pulled out a gun, prosecutors said.

“The victim reported that, after the test drive, OrtizTucker reached into a black fanny pack-style pouch slung over his shoulder and pulled out a 9 mm handgun and pointed it at her,” prosecutors said. “Ortiz-Tucker instructed the victim to get out of the car or he was going to shoot her. The victim complied and Ortiz drove away in the victim’s vehicle.”

Ortiz-Tucker is also “suspected of being involved in other gunpoint carjackings,” including two carjackings involving Uber drivers on May 2 and May 4, prosecutors said.

In the May incidents, prosecutors said the Uber drivers picked up passengers in New Haven who carjacked them in Wallingford. The cars were later recovered in the same area of Hamden.

Ortiz-Tucker faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and a mandatory sentence of at least seven years if convicted of the firearm offense, prosecutors said.

He appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector in New Haven and is being held until a July 26 detention hearing.