A 25-year-old alleged burglar and stalker proved good at jumping fences. So did Officer Joshua Castellano.
The pair’s fence-jumping skills were on display in the Hill neighborhood Monday afternoon in a chase that ended up in the 25-year-old man’s arrest.
Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman:
A DeWitt Street homeowner saw a man crawling through a bedroom window at house around 3:45 p.m., “screamed, slammed the door and called 911.”
Officers Castellano and Jeremy Mastroianni responded.
The 25-year-old was by the house and saw the officers arrive. So he walked across the street, into a backyard, then “took off running” when Castellano ordered him to stop. Castellano chased him — in a pursuit that found them both “hopping the fences of eight residential properties.”
Mastroianni, meanwhile, hopped in his cruiser, and saw the man “fall to the pavement” trying to scale a tall fence on Rosette Street. Mastroianni handcuffed and arrested him.
A 16-year-old woman from the neighborhood subsequently told police that she’d seen her ex-boyfriend in the neighborhood and suspected he was hunting for her. (Police had arrested the man weeks earlier after he allegedly threatened her.) It turned out that 25-year-old fence-jumper was the same guy and had an outstanding domestic violence warrant.
Police charged the man with second-degree burglary, eight counts of third-degree trespassing, staking, and interfering with an officer.
U‑Hauling Tail
Another foot chase took place four and a half hours later Monday, also in the Hill. This one didn’t involve fences. It did involve a U‑Haul truck.
Here’s what happened, according to Hartman:
Cops were on the lookout for a stolen U‑Haul. At 8:17 Officer Christian Carfora saw a driver of a U‑Haul truck run a stop sign on Washington Avenue. So “he pulled the truck over as it entered a deli parking lot on Ella Grasso Boulevard.”
The truck’s passenger bolted. Two offers who arrived on the scene, Garry Monk and David Lavorgna, chased the man on foot while Carfora stayed with the U‑Haul driver.
The fleeing man had a pistol in his hand. The officers drew their guns “as the man brought his hands together in a firing stance.” The man then obeyed an order to drop the gun. A fight ensued on school property, ending with the officers wrestling the 26-year-old man to the ground and handcuffing him. The man, a convicted felon, had “a loaded and chambered semi-automatic 9mm handgun” on him. Cops charged him with a variety of weapons, interfering and reckless endangerment offenses.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old man in the U‑Haul driver’s seat told Carfora that “he didn’t know the man who’d fled from his passenger seat moments earlier— that he was just some guy who’d been helping him.” Police charged the driver with having a weapon in a motor vehicle, running the stop sign, and driving with a suspended license.
It turned out the truck was not the stolen one cops had been looking for.
I never had my license suspended, but I would not have thought DMV would let you keep it. And I would have thought any rental company would need to see a license before letting a vehicle.