ABERDEEN, Md. — A New York man wanted for stealing cooking oil and injuring a police officer during a chaotic chase on Interstate 95 has been arrested.
Juan Yahir Quiroz Manzueta, 21, of Yonkers, was taken into custody Wednesday morning at an apartment in New Rochelle, New York by the U.S. Marshals Service.
He faces charges including second-degree attempted murder, multiple counts of assault, and assault on a police officer, and is awaiting extradition to Maryland.
According to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, the incident began around 11:25 a.m. on August 26, when Lt. Robert Burgess noticed a Penske rental truck driving erratically on Route 136. When Burgess attempted a traffic stop, the driver fled, triggering a dangerous chain of events.
The truck collided with a U.S. mail truck, another car on Route 22, and several vehicles on I-95, eventually driving against traffic in the southbound lanes. When Lt. Burgess attempted to deploy stop sticks, the truck swerved and struck him, throwing him roughly 65 feet. He was flown to Shock Trauma, where he remained alert and conscious.
The chase ended when a sheriff’s deputy used their patrol vehicle to force the truck off the road. The driver had fled on foot. A search led police to a person near the highway who was later cleared and found to be unrelated.
Inside the truck, officers found a container of stolen cooking oil, later confirmed to have been taken from an Applebee’s in Aberdeen earlier that morning. Surveillance showed Manzueta speaking with employees before stealing 1,000 pounds of new oil and 461 pounds of used oil.
Authorities believe the oil was stolen for resale value, as cooking oil can be converted to biodiesel or sold for cash.
Following the incident, all lanes of I-95 were shut down for several hours due to the multiple crashes and investigation.
Investigators tracked Manzueta using electronics left in the truck, including a damaged phone later turned on to extract leads. Surveillance also confirmed he was picked up at a Delaware rest stop by a female associate and driven to New York.
The Penske truck rental—booked under Manzueta’s name—also provided critical GPS data that confirmed his route from New York to Maryland.
Authorities say Manzueta has a criminal history involving similar cooking oil thefts in Northern Virginia.
He will be extradited to Maryland to face charges related to the theft, police chase, and assault of an officer.
