Youth home residents charged in Bensalem carjackings

✅ Two carjackings took place in two days in Bensalem

✅ Both involved a 15-year-old and 18-year-old both are youth home residents

✅ Bensalem police are looking at residents in their investigation of other crimes

BENSALEM, Pa. — Two residents of a Catholic home for troubled youth were charged in connection with carjackings near the school that police staff has no control over.

Bensalem police said a woman arrived home to her home on Oak Court around 4:15 a.m. on Monday in her Honda Pilot and saw 5-7 males standing in a parking lot. As she sat in her SUV until they left a male wearing a mask tapped on the window with a gun and told her to get out.

The male, later identified as Daniel Rosa, 15, pointed the gun at her face, ordered the woman to hand over her phone and then drove off in the SUV.

Using cameras and automated license plate readers police were able to track the SUV to and find it unoccupied within the hour, according to police.

The next day 911 was called about the theft of a Toyota RAV 4 in progress on Magnolia Court around 5 a.m. When police tried to stop the SUV the driver rammed it into the side of a police van at the intersection of Street and Mechanicsville Roads in Bensalem. A passenger, Tharyn Battis Jr.,18, exited the SUV and was eventually taken into custody in a wooded area by police at gunpoint near Byberry and Knights Roads.

Same driver in both carjackings

A Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, Battis’s cell phone, a vape pen, and a pocket knife in the wooded area where he was taken into custody. The gun was registered to a Bensalem resident who reported it stolen from his vehicle the night before Thanksgiving.

Police said the investigation determined Rosa was the driver in both thefts. Rosa and Battis were also found to be residents of the St. Francis & St. Vincent Homes for Children in Bensalem

Both were charged with robbery, robbery of a motor vehicle, persons not to possess a firearm, theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, and related charges. Rosa was charged as an adult.

Bensalem police in a statement said that officers have been to the school on Bristol Pike "multiple" times and have found the staff has "little or no control" over the residents.

"It was discovered that several residents went AWOL simultaneously at 2:59 am on Monday, just before the carjacking. Still, staff only reported that Tharyn Battis Jr. was missing," the department said in a statement. "There has been a significant uptick in crimes committed in the Brookwood and Eddington sections of the township, specifically vehicle thefts and vehicle break-ins."

School is over 100 years old

Detectives are focusing their efforts on residents, according to the department.

The Philadelphia Archdioceses on Thursday afternoon did not respond to PALivingNews.com's request for comment about Bensalem police's assessment of the school.

The school was established in 1888 and is owned and operated by Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Its mission is to act as a beacon of hope for adjudicated and dependent youth in the region, according to the school's website.

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