COLONIE – After an hour long chase through neighborhoods along Central Avenue, police arrested a man wanted as a material witness out of Ohio and who is a previously convicted deported once before.
According to Lt. Robert Winn, police received a call shortly before 8 a.m. on Friday Oct. 6 about a man she recognized as a wanted felon.
An officer spotted Rafiek Yussef coming out of a Cumberland Farms on Central Avenue and the 45-year-old with a Schenectady address immediately took off running.
He was eventually found in a shed behind 10 South West Way hiding in a hot tub, Winn said.
Colonie police charged him with the felonies of burglary and criminal possession of a forged instrument and the misdemeanors of criminal mischief, criminal trespass and criminal tampering.
He was arraigned on those charges and sent to the Albany County jail. It is up to federal and Ohio authorities to determine what to do with him on the other matters, Winn said.
The woman who spotted him saw his photo in relation to reports of a kidnapping in Schenectady, which were ultimately unfounded.
Colonie police were assisted by the Albany County Sheriff’s K9 unit, a State Police helicopter, officers from the City of Albany and an officer from the Department of Environmental Conservation who happened upon the commotion.
