Cops Chase Druggies

Once on foot, once by car, New Haven cops chased drug-users involved in related criminal activity twice in recent days, police spokesman Officer David Hartman reported Monday.

Both incidents ended in arrests.

Here’s what happened, according to Hartman (with his precise words in quotation marks):

As East Rock Park closed at sundown Sunday, Officer Edward Douglas came across a Branford man smoking heroin with a woman inside a Mercedes parked at the summit. The man drove off — first ramming the officer’s cruiser before heading to the park exit, where Hamden cops were waiting for him.

The man got out of the car, then ​“quickly got back in and took off” onto I‑91 South, then into Fair Haven, with Hamden, New Haven and state cops following.

He led them onto I‑95 northbound, then off the highway in Branford, then back on the highway again toward New Haven.

The driver got off the highway, then drove the wrong way onto an exit ramp from the Pear Harbor Memorial Bridge. He crashed, ​“wedging his car between an oncoming van and the bridge’s concrete barrier.” The car’s occupants were not injured. They were arrested — the man, who’s 32, on ​“numerous motor vehicle violations, drug crimes and the assault on a police officer,” plus five outstanding arrest warrants; the woman, who’s 26, ​“for the heroin she had in her possession.”

The foot chase took place on Thursday. It began at 11:22 a.m. on the Green, where ​“Officer Pete Ballolli (pictured) was on the look out for drug dealers and users.”

“He spotted three men in a huddle but couldn’t see what they were doing.” The men saw the cop, ​“split up.” One of the three ​“grabbed a brown pillow case and took off running.” Balloolli gave chase.

Three scaled-fences later, the man led Balloolli toward State Street. He robbed someone of a bicycle, rode it to State Street, then ​“hopped off and continued his flight on foot.

He was soon apprehended ​“and charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree larceny, interfering with police and drug crimes.” Some of the charges stemmed from what police found in the brown pillow case that he had discarded during the chase: ​“It contained a MacBook Pro computer, five boxes — each containing a gold ring, a diamond necklace with matching earrings, a silver bracelet, a diamond bracelet, two folding knives and 12 bottles of prescription medicines — none of which were prescribed to him. The prescriptions were Progesterone Acetate, Naproxen, Cyclobenzaprine, Tramadol (a controlled substance), Cialis, Lisinopril, Meloxicam and Diflunisal.”