NEW HAVEN–What could have been a tragedy was thankfully resolved without anyone being seriously injured.
On Tuesday around 7 p.m. an East Haven woman approached a New Haven police officer to report that five hours earlier her 1 and a half-year-old son had been kidnapped by his father. The 34-year-old woman said the son’s father, Nicholas Ferraro, 34, of New Haven, was just an acquaintance of hers and didn’t have custody of the child.
The woman told officers she had taken the boy and his father to a Rite Aid on Church Street and left them in the car, but when she returned after making her purchase her car was gone. She said she couldn’t call police because her cell phone was in the stolen car.
The officer broadcast the descriptions of the 2015 Nissan Versa Note, Ferraro and the child, but a short time later the mother got a text message from Feraro stating he’d run out of gas on Chapel Street. It’s not clear how the woman got this text message because she reported her phone was in the car; police are still investigating.
Officers approached the car when they found it and pulled Ferraro over. He got out of the car, asked “What’s going on?” and then jumped back in and tried to drive off. A struggle ensued with one of the officers, but Ferraro was able to throw the car in drive and drag the officer along.
Ferraro lost control and hit a tree, throwing the officer into the tree trunk. Ferarro, now free of the officer, sped off.
The other officers who were on the scene chased Ferraro, and eventually an East Haven police officer was able to pin the vehicle to a concrete barrier on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.
Ferraro couldn’t escape, and was then arrested.
Thankfully, the baby was in his car seat and not hurt, though he was taken to the hospital to be evaluated as a precaution.
The officer who was dragged and thrown into the tree was evaluated on the scene for his injuries, but he will be okay, police say.
Ferraro is charged with kidnapping in the second degree, risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment in the first degree, interfering with an officer, assault on a police officer, engaging police in pursuit, taking a vehicle without the owner’s permission, disobeying an officer’s signal and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.
