A pre-arranged sale in the Newburgh Mall parking lot turned violent on August 20 when two men allegedly robbed the buyer at gunpoint, stole his car, and struck him with it while fleeing. Now both suspects are facing federal charges, with one tracked down eleven days later at a Dollar General store across the Hudson River in Fishkill.
According to the Mid Hudson Times, Town of Newburgh police responded to the mall parking lot at 1401 Route 300 at about 6:34 p.m. on August 20 and found a male victim who told them he had been robbed during what was supposed to be a pre-arranged transaction. Police say one suspect displayed a firearm while the other brandished a knife, and one of the men stole the victim's vehicle before striking him with it during the getaway. Officers stopped a vehicle believed to be involved a short distance from the mall and arrested one suspect without incident; the stolen car was later recovered unoccupied.
Town detectives identified a second suspect, who evaded capture until law enforcement located him at a Dollar General store in Fishkill, New York, at approximately 6:20 p.m. on August 31, as reported by Daily Voice. He was taken into custody without incident. Fishkill sits directly across the Hudson River from Newburgh, and the two towns are linked by the Hamilton Fish Newburgh–Beacon Bridge, a dual-span Interstate 84 crossing that carries roughly 65,000 vehicles a day, per Wikipedia.
Why It Took Two Weeks for Details to Emerge
Though the robbery happened August 20 and the second suspect was caught August 31, the Town of Newburgh Police Department did not release a public statement about the incident and the suspects' federal custody until September 4 — a delay attributed to the case's nature and complexity and to waiting until both suspects were in custody, according to A Little Beacon Blog. Town police released no names of the suspects and no additional information about them. Both men are now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, per police, and both are being charged federally, with the case being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the Mid Hudson Times reports.
The investigation drew in multiple municipal, state, and federal entities, including the FBI Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force and the Hudson Valley Crime Analysis Center, according to the same account from A Little Beacon Blog. The U.S. Marshals Service is identified separately as the custodian of the suspects. Other agencies assisting included the City of Newburgh Police Department, New York State Police, Town of Newburgh Emergency Medical Services, and the Orange County District Attorney's Office, per the Mid Hudson Times. Police describe the investigation as active but say the incident was isolated and posed no ongoing threat to the public.
Federal Carjacking Charges Carry Steep Penalties
Federal carjacking law, 18 U.S.C. § 2119, allows for a baseline maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for taking a motor vehicle from a victim by force or intimidation, rising to as much as 25 years if serious bodily injury occurs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That statute is notable here given police accounts that one suspect struck the victim with the stolen vehicle during the escape.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have been active in Hudson Valley violent crime cases, having wrapped up a multi-year prosecution in July that sent more than 40 gang members to prison for armed robberies in Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, per the Department of Justice. The Newburgh Mall property itself has drawn law enforcement attention before: the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced felony arson and insurance fraud charges in June 2025 tied to a 2022 fire at the mall, according to an Orange County NY official news release. The mall, which opened in 1980 at 1401 Route 300, is the site of the reported robbery.
A Reminder on Meeting Strangers for Sales
The robbery began as a pre-arranged transaction, underscoring the risks of meeting strangers for sales. The Town of Newburgh Police Department is identified in reports covering the case.
