MERIDEN — A suspect led Meriden police on a chase through three towns late Monday night that ended in a crash and cruiser being struck.
It all started around 11:30 p.m. Police in Meriden were called to City Park to locate a possible burglary suspect. That’s when the suspect took off, police said. They chased him through Berlin and into Cromwell where he lost control of his car, hit a police cruiser, and flipped on its roof coming to a stop on Route 372, near the intersection with Willowbrook Road. Property at the Willowbrook Plaza was damaged.
The suspect, Raymond Ward, 19, of Meriden was not injured and tried to run off on foot, but was found a short time later when someone called in a suspicious person in the area.
Ward was charged in Cromwell with evading responsibility and failure to maintain proper lane, and was released back into the custody of Meriden Police.
In Meriden, he was charged with disobeying an officer’s signal, failure to maintain lane, unsafe backing, suspended driver’s license, operating a motor vehicle without registration or insurance, misuse of registration plates, disobeying a stop sign, disobeying a traffic light, two counts of failure to drive right, two counts of evading responsibility, reckless driving, two counts of engaging in pursuit, reckless endangerment, interfering with an officer, and two counts of assault on a public safety officer. He is being held on a $100,000 bond.
A Connecticut State Police K9 unit was called in to assist local officers.
“An investigation into the actions of our officers will be conducted to ensure the adherence to department policies,” said Sgt. Christopher Fry. “More information will be available upon its conclusion.”
