Sewell man, 41, arrested after carjacking, robbery

A man who carjacked a teenager at a Cherry Hill diner yesterday and robbed a different woman at an Oaklyn drugstore led Camden police on high-speed chase before crashing at a Route 70 exit ramp, police said.

Michael W. Powers, 41, of Sewell, was arrested after trying to run from police near the Cuthbert Boulevard exit. He was being held last night at the Camden County jail on a carjacking charge after failing to post $250,000 bail. Additional charges are pending, said Cherry Hill police spokesman Bill Kushina.

According to police, Powers threatened to shoot an 18-year-old Cherry Hill woman about 9:15 a.m. at the Cherry Tree Diner on Cooper Landing Road if she did not give him her 2006 Volkswagen Jetta. About an hour later, Powers told a woman at a CVS in Oaklyn he would shoot her unless she gave him her purse, so she handed it over, Kushina said.

Shortly after 11 a.m., Camden police officers spotted the stolen car and gave chase. The car crossed into Cherry Hill on Route 70 but crashed shortly after. According to state records, Powers was released from prison in November after serving five years on a robbery charge. - Sam Wood