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Wallingford PD: Man crashes on I-91, tries stealing Good Samaritan’s car

WALLINGFORD — Several people are injured after a Massachusetts man’s crime spree Wednesday morning. It started when Juan Laporte, 32, of Springfield...

WALLINGFORD -- Several people are injured after a Massachusetts man's crime spree Wednesday morning.

It started when Juan Laporte, 32, of Springfield, crashed a car on I-91 in Wallingford. A Good Samaritan stopped by to see if Laporte needed help. Laporte got in her car, and she drove him to the Sunoco gas station on South Colony Road with the intent of calling police.

Instead, Laporte tried to take the woman's car keys and tackled her to the pavement. A passerby witnessed the incident, and jumped in to help free the woman and help get her away from Laporte.

Laporte then got into the driver's seat of a Jeep Commander nearby as the driver was pumping gas and the keys were in the ignition of the car.

The driver saw Laporte and tried to stop him, getting into the driver's seat of the Jeep.

Laporte, however, was able to drive away from the gas pumps while the man was still hanging onto the steering wheel. While this was happening, another man saw what happened and made his way through the passenger side door of the Jeep, trying to remove the keys from the ignition. He fell out of the car.

Laporte drove onto South Colony Road while the man on the driver's side held on.

Laporte looped back into the parking long, back onto the road, and then back into the parking lot again where he crashed with a metal pole.

Laporte then tried to run, but three men at the scene were able to detain Laporte until police arrived. Officers struggled to take him into custody.

The civilians received minor injuries. Laporte received minor injuries from the crash on I-91, and an officer also was injured while trying to arrest Laporte.

Laporte is charged with assault, reckless endangerment, assault, breach of peace, carjacking, reckless driving, resisting arrest, attempted robbery among other charges.

He was held on a $100,00 bond and is expected to be arraigned today.

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