Two stolen police cars plus two high-speed chases in two cities in two states add up to a mountain of charges filed against Shayna Sykes and Blake Bills, the Macungie couple who allegedly went on a drug-fueled joy ride through Camden and Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson called Sykes and Bills the “Junkie version of Bonnie and Clyde,” in a WPVI-TV Channel 6 interview.
According to the Camden County Prosecutor’s office, Bills, 24, was charged with “Attempted Murder, Carjacking, Eluding and 2nd degree Aggravated Assault and fourth degree Assault by Auto. Shayna Sykes, 23, was charged with third degree Conspiracy to Commit Theft of a Car and fourth degree Joyriding."
The charges, filed late Tuesday, are the result of the couple allegedly taking a Camden police cruiser as Camden Police Officer Sekou Reid-Bey conducted a car stop on Federal Street in Camden.
“Investigators have determined Bills got in the empty cruiser about 9:50 a.m. Tuesday and drove directly into Officer Reid-Bay, who remains hospitalized at Cooper Hospital in stable condition. Bills then drove around the block once and picked up Sykes at Mickle Boulevard and Haddon Avenue. They fled from police east on Admiral Wilson Boulevard into Pennsauken, then back into Camden on the same road. The two crossed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and were apprehended in Philadelphia after an extensive pursuit,” Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said in a press release Wednesday.
The couple was high on heroin when they stole the cars, according to a Phily.com report.
Authorities in Philadelphia have also filed a laundry list of charges against the pair, according to the Channel 6 story, including resisting arrest, DUI, eluding police, risking a catastrophe and related offenses.
UPDATE:
In another release issued Wednesday night, police announced additional charges against Bills and Sykes:
- 2nd degree Eluding and Loitering to Obtain a Controlled Substance after the couple was seen allegedly attempting to purchase drugs near Third and Erie streets in Camden on March 3.
- 3rd degree Receiving Stolen Property in connection with a March 5 incident in which the couple was allegedly observed in a disabled vehicle on Fourth and State streets in Camden. An officer asked if they needed help and then was called away. When he came back and ran the plates on the vehicle he discovered it had been reported stolen from Philadelphia.
- 3rd degree Criminal Attempted Auto Theft and 3rd degree Conspiracy to Commit Theft in conjunction with another March 5 incident in which Bills and Sykes allegedly attempted to steal a woman's car at Third and Market streets.
"Bills and Sykes are being held in Philadelphia, but additional bail has been set in Camden County. Bills is facing a $500,000 bail in Camden County and Sykes a $342,500 bail," the release said.
Bills was charged in Macungie last summer with burglary, criminal trespass, receiving stolen property and theft by unlawful taking or disposition in conjunction with a neighborhood incident.
The Sykes home at 326 Oxford Place was quiet Wednesday. Nobody answered the door to a knock, and neighbors were no longer interested in talking about the incident after Tuesday’s influx of Philadelphia news vans.
