A 17-year-old Scranton resident is being held at the Lackawanna County Prison after police say he tried to rob a woman at gunpoint on her front porch, then pointed the same handgun at two women in a parked car less than an hour later, triggering a foot chase that ended with a police dog tracking him down in a South Side yard.
Justin Joel Sikaffy is charged as an adult with robbery, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and evading arrest, among other counts, following the string of incidents that began just before midnight Monday, according to the Scranton Times-Tribune. Police were first called to the area of Quincy Avenue and Vine Street in the Hill Section, where Holly Hughes told officers she was sitting on her front porch talking on the phone when Sikaffy pulled out a small black handgun and demanded her wallet. Hughes had only a single dollar bill and did not hand it over, and Sikaffy walked away toward Moses Taylor Hospital, per the same account.
Roughly an hour later, around 1 a.m. Tuesday, police say Sikaffy resurfaced in the South Side near Moosic Street and Crown Avenue, shifting the overnight spree between two distinct Scranton neighborhoods, as WNEP reported. There, DoorDash driver Shantel Loughney was waiting for her cousin, Sheila Fraizer, with the vehicle running when police say Sikaffy approached and pointed the gun at her, threatening to shoot her if she did not get out of the car, according to police. Loughney exited the vehicle, and Sikaffy then pointed the gun at Fraizer and ordered her to back away.
Carjacking Attempt Ends in a Runaway Vehicle Crash
Police say Sikaffy struggled to operate the vehicle once inside, then jumped out and fled on foot down Crown Avenue. The Times-Tribune reports he apologized to the women as the chaos unfolded. Left unoccupied, the first vehicle rolled backward across the intersection of Moosic Street and Crown Avenue, struck a fire hydrant, deployed its airbags, mounted a curb and came to rest on top of the hydrant.
Police set up a perimeter around Front and Donnelly streets as Sikaffy tried to evade capture, according to the Times-Tribune's account of the arrest complaint. The break came when a Scranton Police Department K-9 unit picked up his trail after officers spotted him running through yards on Quinan Court, the outlet reported. Officers ultimately took Sikaffy into custody after he resisted arrest, per the same report.
Handgun Recovered Nearby
Officers later located a black Glock 43X 9mm handgun in an empty lot between 619 and 633 Hemlock Street, according to the Times-Tribune. The report does not identify it as the handgun used in either incident. Per the arrest complaint, Sikaffy told police that people do what they do because they are going through difficulties.
Sikaffy was arraigned before District Judge Paul Ware and, according to the Times-Tribune, was charged as an adult with robbery, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and evading arrest. WNEP additionally reported that police filed further charges including receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, and loitering and prowling at night time, rounding out a full statutory charge sheet beyond the core violent felonies. He was remanded to the Lackawanna County Prison after failing to post the $150,000 bail Ware set, per WNEP's report. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 28 at 9:30 a.m.
Why a 17-Year-Old Faces Adult Charges
Sikaffy's case landing directly in adult criminal court is not unusual for an alleged offense of this nature. Under Pennsylvania's direct file statute, known as Act 33, juveniles aged 15 and older accused of certain serious offenses involving a deadly weapon — including armed robbery and aggravated assault — may qualify for direct file, according to Snyder Law. The law also provides a decertification process that can move a direct-file case back to juvenile court. The available reports do not discuss whether the case will be petitioned back to juvenile court.
A Broader Decline in Scranton Violent Crime
The overnight spree comes even as Scranton's overall violent crime numbers have fallen sharply. Violent offenses in the city dropped from 1,199 reported incidents in 2019 to 248 in 2025, and to 146 in 2026, according to Pennsylvania State Police Uniform Crime Reporting figures cited by The Pennsylvania Independent. That decline follows a temporary spike in homicides — Scranton saw a string of homicides between March and May 2024, compared with an annual average of 1.4 homicides between 2019 and 2023, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting on the city's crime trends.
To sustain the downward trend, the City of Scranton partnered with Lackawanna County on a $105,000 community violence intervention and prevention strategy funded through federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, aimed at addressing root causes of youth crime, according to Lackawanna County. The Scranton Police Department's operating budget has also grown by 22% under the current administration, funding smart technology across 51 new patrol vehicles and a planned downtown Real-Time Crime Center, per the Pennsylvania Independent's reporting.
