Laurel Man Nabbed With Knife Minutes After Carjacking Woman on Route 198

A 33-year-old Laurel man is facing charges after police say he approached a woman with a knife and demanded her car keys on a busy commercial stretch of Laurel Fort Meade Road, then didn't get far before officers tracked him down on foot. Jose Raul Hernandez was taken into custody after patrol units found the stolen vehicle abandoned and unoccupied nearby, with the knife still visible inside.

According to the Fox45 News account of the arrest, officers responded to the 3500 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road on Tuesday after a report of an armed carjacking. Police say a male suspect approached a female victim with a knife and demanded her vehicle keys, and that she complied. The suspect then reportedly drove off with her vehicle heading east on Laurel Fort Meade Road. The Anne Arundel County Government confirmed that Western District officers were dispatched to the scene at 3:25 p.m. on August 18, and the case has been filed under incident report number 26-726280.

Suspect Found Walking Blocks From the Scene

Police found the vehicle a short distance away in the 3300 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road, unoccupied, with the knife visible inside, per the same report from Anne Arundel County Government. Officers then located Hernandez walking nearby and took him into custody in connection with the carjacking. Officials reported that Hernandez was charged accordingly, though the exact charge count has not yet been detailed in available records.

The stretch of roadway where the carjacking unfolded is a commercial corridor also known as Maryland Route 198, lined with retail developments including the Brockbridge Shopping Center and several gas stations, according to Eye on Annapolis. The Western District, which handles law enforcement for Laurel, Severn, Odenton and Fort Meade, operates out of a station at 8273 Telegraph Road in Odenton, per the Anne Arundel County Government's district information.

Second Carjacking in Two Days for Western District

This was not an isolated incident for the district. Just a day earlier, Hoodline reported on an armed carjacking in Severn, where two suspects forced a driver out of his vehicle at gunpoint before abandoning it in a park. Both cases fell under the same Western District's jurisdiction within roughly 24 hours of each other, underscoring ongoing concerns along the county's northern commercial corridors even as overall numbers trend downward.

That downward trend is notable: Anne Arundel County police data show carjackings countywide fell 27% in 2025, dropping to 16 incidents from 22 the year before, according to the Anne Arundel County Government. Broader motor vehicle theft numbers fell even further, down 30% to 1,220 reported incidents in 2025 compared with 1,751 in 2024, the county reports. Still, the back-to-back Severn and Laurel cases in mid-August show that individual violent incidents continue even as the overall count declines.

What Hernandez Could Face Under Maryland Law

Under Maryland Criminal Law Code § 3-405, both carjacking and armed carjacking are classified as violent felonies carrying a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison upon conviction, according to FindLaw. Notably, prosecutors are not required to prove a suspect intended to permanently deprive the owner of the vehicle to secure a conviction under § 3-405(f), meaning even a brief theft like the one described in this case can still be charged as a felony carjacking. Maryland law also allows judges to order carjacking sentences to run consecutively to any other sentences tied to the same incident, under § 3-405(e), which could add up if additional charges such as weapons offenses are ultimately filed.

Criminal charges remain allegations at this stage, and formal court filings will clarify exactly what Hernandez faces. The case adds to a string of recent vehicle-crime incidents across northern Anne Arundel County that Hoodline has tracked in recent months, including a stolen car that slammed into a police cruiser near a Hanover Wawa and an earlier gunpoint carjacking of a 22-year-old woman in Severn.