A carjacker attacked two women in Bucks County and threatened them with hypodermic needles, police said

A man experiencing homelessness has been charged with carjacking two women in Bucks County over the span of five months, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Kevin O’Connell, 40, allegedly used the same method in both incidents, approaching the women and asking them for money. When the victims refused, investigators said, O’Connell threatened them with a hypodermic needle, telling them he is addicted to heroin and HIV-positive.

After the most recent carjacking, which took place Friday in Bristol, police tracked O’Connell to Kensington, where he was found driving the 83-year-old victim’s Toyota Camry. O’Connell was arrested by Philadelphia Police and charged by county prosecutors with robbery, aggravated assault, theft by unlawful taking, and related offenses.

O’Connell remained in custody at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, awaiting transfer to Bucks County. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

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Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said O’Connell’s arrest came after close coordination between police in Bristol and Philadelphia.

“Carjacking is still comparatively rare in Bucks County, and that’s as a consequence of joint law enforcement efforts like these,” he said. “We will now focus our prosecution on deterring this man, and others from committing these violent acts in the future.”

In March, O’Connell approached a woman in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Levittown, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. As the victim parked her Chevrolet Trax, O’Connell opened the vehicle’s passenger door and climbed inside, ordering her to get out and threatening her with a needle.

The woman left and took her keys, but the vehicle’s keyless ignition system allowed O’Connell to drive away. Through the car’s GPS system, OnStar was able to track it to Kensington, with O’Connell still inside it, the affidavit said.

Court records from Philadelphia show that O’Connell was charged with receiving stolen property and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, but was released without bail.

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A spokesperson for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said prosecutors did not ask that O’Connell be held on bail because they had been told only that he had been using the victim’s car without her permission, not that he had allegedly taken the vehicle by force.

“Now, had there been evidence that the defendant had forcefully taken the vehicle or had threatened to do so, there is no question that we would have ... requested very high bail,” the spokesperson, Dustin Slaughter, said in a statement.

It wasn’t until five months later, when O’Connell committed his second carjacking, that investigators in Bucks County had enough evidence to charge him with the more serious offense in the March attack, prosecutors said in court filings.

On Friday, O’Connell approached a second woman in the parking lot of a LabCorp in Bristol. Investigators gave this account of what happened next:

O’Connell asked an 83-year-old woman for a dollar to buy him a drink. When the woman refused, he followed her to her Toyota Camry, got into the vehicle and grabbed her keys, saying he was going to “give her a shot” with a needle.

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The woman honked the car’s horn, drawing the attention of passersby. O’Connell threw the car’s keys on the ground and promised to walk away. But when the woman went to retrieve them, he quickly grabbed them and took control of the car, throwing her from the vehicle.

The woman was later treated at a nearby Jefferson Health office for minor injuries to her arms and legs.

Philadelphia Police, acting on information provided by Bristol Township Police, pulled over the victim’s Camry at C Street near Allegheny Avenue in Kensington on Saturday and took O’Connell into custody.