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NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- A man recently released from prison allegedly killed two men in separate shootings during a 48-hour crime spree on Staten Island, New York City police said. A judge ordered Tyrell Brown, 25, to be held without bail Friday after he was arraigned on charges that included two counts of murder. He was also charged with robbery and carjacking.
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Brown was arrested late Tuesday in Staten Island. Police said they got a tip from someone who saw him on the street.
Investigators said Brown shot Kuwan Collins of Voorhees, N.J., at about 3 a.m. Sunday. Collins, who was walking with another man who was shot and wounded, had come to Staten Island for a party.
"This is crazy, senseless," Shirley Freeman, who was engaged to Collins, told the New York Times. "He didn't know Tyrell at all. He wasn't in the streets. He didn't even live here."
Just over two hours later, Devin Powell was killed a few miles away. Investigators said the gun used to shoot Powell was the same one that shot Collins.
At 6 a.m., Brown allegedly carjacked a Hummer, forcing the driver to lie on the ground. Police said he then drove around Brooklyn for a while with his girlfriend before heading back to Staten Island.
Police were looking for the Hummer by that time. Brown allegedly tried to run down two police officers after he drove through the toll gates on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and fled on foot after crashing the Hummer.
Brown is also charged with robbing a livery cab driver and trying to steal another car, an attempt that failed because he did not know how to drive a manual transmission.
Brown's mother, Doreatha Vergara, told the Times she had not seen a lot of her son since he was released from prison two months ago after serving five years for a violent robbery. But she believed he was trying to straighten out his life.
"I'm shocked; I just burst out crying when I found out," she said of his alleged crime spree. "I wanted to commit suicide."
