Two of the six people arrested in a violent carjacking in the North Cherry Creek Whole Foods parking garage are facing organized crime charges for the incident which happened last month on a Tuesday in broad daylight.

Twenty-year-old Josiah McCray and Jurdon Bryant-Beasley, 19, were both charged with violating Colorado’s Organized Crime Act, a class 2 felony along with 12 and 10 felony charges each respectively including aggravated motor vehicle theft, aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit motor vehicle theft in the incident which shocked the North Cherry Creek shopping area.

The Colorado Organized Crime Act, which can include things such as money laundering or a drug or car theft ring, carries 8 to 24 years in prison.

On Jan. 24 at around 2:45, two women were in their 2023 Audi SUV inside the garage at 2nd and University when they were surrounded by the group, pulled from the vehicle and struck in the head with handguns. Some of the suspects drove away in the stolen Audi and others followed in their original vehicle, a Volkswagen Tiguan, according to the Denver Police Department’s probable cause affidavit.

Denver police caught up with the two-vehicle caravan at West 9th Avenue and Lincoln Street where the Audi was abandoned, arrest documents reported. All six of the group then fled in their vehicle, leading police on a chase to E 17th Avenue and Willow Street where they attempted to carjack another vehicle.

Police eventually arrested all six suspects, two of whom they found hiding out in the backyard of a home at 1670 Willow after 10 p.m., the arrest affidavit said.

The Denver District Attorney’s office charged Elrich Haliburton, 20, and Nyariee Richardson, 21, with multiple felonies including aggravated robbery and aggravated vehicle theft.

A 16-year-old juvenile was charged with nine counts including one sentencing enhancer for using a weapon and a 15-year-old juvenile faces seven charges in connection to the carjacking incident. 

None of the six males arrested in the carjacking had been assigned court dates at the time of this writing.

A recent report from the Council on Criminal Justice analyzing 35 U.S. cities including Denver and Aurora showed that while homicides and domestic violence declined slightly in 2022, auto and property crime theft spiked. Now those crimes are on a continued increase in 2023.

The CCJ study found that from 2019 to 2022, the CCJ analysis found that vehicle theft had nearly tripled in Aurora.

Denver Gazette reporter Julia Cardi helped with this story. It will be updated as information becomes available.