Thomas MacMIllan Photo
A cross-neighborhood chase ended near Goffe Street Park Wednesday afternoon, as police caught up with a man who allegedly rammed into a police cruiser.
Here’s what happened, according to Capt. Leo Bombalicki.
Shortly after 3 p.m., Bombalicki noticed a dark blue Dodge Stratus traveling on Kensington Street without a front plate. He pulled the car over.
Bombalicki asked the driver for his name. He gave a name. The Stratus turned out to be a rental car; Bombalicki checked the name on the rental agreement, which did not match the name given by the driver. So Bombalicki asked the driver to step out of the car.
Instead, the driver allegedly reached into his waistband, threw the car into drive, and sped off.
Bombalicki hopped into his cruiser. A chase was on.
It continued through several streets, onto Ella Grass Boulevard, near Edgewood Avenue.
“I pulled up alongside him,” Bombalicki said later. “He was saw I was gaining. He turned into me and rammed me.”
Other cops were called to join the chase. The driver lost control of the Stratus at Orchard and Henry streets. He slammed into a gray Suzuki Grand Vitara stopped at the light; a woman was behind the wheel with kids in the car.
The driver bailed out of the car and started running. The cops ran after him.
He fled behind the Orchard Market at Orchard and Henry, through backyards on County Street. An officer caught the man at a house on County between Henry and Goffe. The man was arrested; he didn’t offer a name or show ID. Police later identified him as a Hamden man in his late 20s with two outstanding New Haven warrants and another from Virginia.
He didn’t have a gun on him. Cops reported seeing him reaching for his waistband several times during the chase. So trusty gun-sniffing police canine Bitang was called to the scene to start sniffing.
Just before 4 p.m., a tall man wearing a black tank top was removed from a cruiser and put into a police van. He was heard arguing with cops about his right to remain silent.
Later police arrested an unidentified woman at the scene in a nurse’s uniform. Lt. Ray Hassett said the charge was “interfering”; he declined to give details.
The woman driving the SUV declined to speak to a reporter. Police said she and the kids were not injured.
Lt. Bombalicki said he’s fine, too. “A little sore.”