The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘This definitely doesn’t happen every day’
How a car dealership employee helped nab an alleged city homicide fugitive
MIDDLETOWN — Joanna Bell usually tracks loaner Audis to make sure they are returned to the Westchester County car dealership where she works as a service manager.
But in June, she became part of an intensive manhunt that involved U.S. marshals from three states who were looking for Matthew O’Banner, accused of killing a man and shooting a teen in front of his mother’s
Middletown address.
“I think this was the first time we were involved in a police investigation,” Bell said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. “This definitely doesn’t happen every day.”
O’Banner was captured in New Jersey on Aug. 5 after members of the Connecticut U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force coordinated with Middletown police to locate him.
The shootings had occurred on May 16 outside a Stirling Court home during a large melee prompted by an angry phone call, according to O’Banner’s arrest warrant affidavit.
Police determined the 20-yearold O’Banner ran from the address where his mother lives and began firing at the crowd, the warrant stated.
Middletown resident Tylon Hardy, 25, was killed and a 17-yearold was wounded in the shooting, police said.
O’Banner fled the area after the shootings with his mother, Michelle Sanders, and his girlfriend, Alexandra Vazquez, denying to police that he was at the address when the incident occurred, arrest warrants said.
Police said security camera footage from Sanders’ home revealed O’Banner was inside the residence before and after the shootings, his arrest warrant stated. The footage also revealed O’Banner, Sanders and Vazquez discussing how he needed to flee the area, the warrant stated.
Police obtained an arrest warrant charging O’Banner with murder, first-degree assault with a firearm, reckless endangerment and commission of a felony with a firearm on May 28, court documents said. However, O’Banner never showed up on June 14 when his attorney arranged for him to turn himself in, the warrant stated.
About a week later, Middletown police sought the help of the Connecticut Violent Fugitive Task Force run by the U.S. Marshals Service.
The task force is one of several throughout the country that specializes in apprehending fugitives and making sure that sex offenders are compliant with the terms of their release, said Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Matthew Duffy, who runs the Connecticut task force.
There are 94 judicial districts throughout the country that have one U.S. marshal and several deputies. Part of their work is to staff 56 task forces nationwide who concentrate on finding fugitives with state and local police, said Dave Oney, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Marshals Service.
The task forces act as a “force multiplier” for local and state police who may not have the resources to find fugitives, Oney said. In 2020, the U.S. Marshals Service helped state and local police find 53,080 fugitives, he said.
“They have the broadest law enforcement authority in the country,” Oney said.
The Connecticut task force is staffed with deputy marshals and local police from Bridgeport, Norwalk, West Haven, New Haven, Waterbury and Hartford, Tucker said. The local officers work fulltime with the task force and are deputized so they can operate in any part of the country, he said.
The presence of local police also acts as a force multiplier for the marshals, Tucker said. When Middletown requested assistance, they assigned an investigator to the task force on a part-time basis, he said.
While Tucker and Middletown police declined to provide details on parts of the investigation into O’Banner’s whereabouts, Tucker said in most fugitive cases, friends and family will help someone on the lam.
Bell said Middletown police contacted her in mid-June about Sanders’ vehicle. She said they knew her Audi was in for service and wanted the tracking information for the loaner.
“All of our loaners have a tracker that registers when the engine shuts off or starts,” Bell said. “I sent them a list of all the GPS coordinates and was able to give them locations as they were tracking the car.”
The tracking device repeatedly showed the loaner Sanders was driving to an address in North Bergen, N.J., according to the arrest warrant for O’Banner’s mother.
Police installed a tracking device on Sanders’ car while it was being serviced at the New York dealership, the warrant stated. After Sanders picked up her car on July 1, police said the tracking device showed her traveling to and from the same address in North Bergen, the warrant stated.
On Aug. 4, investigators placed a camera on a pole near the address. Within hours, the cameras showed people with “similar attributes” to O’Banner and Vazquez walking into the address carrying bags of personal items, the warrant said. Sanders then showed up a few minutes later, police said in the warrant.
O’Banner was taken into custody by New York and New Jersey U.S. marshals a few hours later, the warrant said. Sanders and Vazquez were later charged with tampering with evidence and interfering with police. Sanders was also charged with possession of narcotics.
“Hats off to Middletown, they did a great investigation,” Tucker said. “This is all about great relationships with local and state police and extending the long arm of the law.”