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The incident began around 2:30 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 30, in New Haven County, when a Meriden Police patrol officer observed an erratic driver, the department said.
The driver, identified as Julian Dudley, 27, of Meriden, after observing the police cruiser, began driving even faster in an attempt to elude the officer’s cruiser, the department said.
Dudley accelerated on South Colony Road and the officer attempted to catch up to the vehicle; however, he lost sight of the car on Old Colony Road.
The officer then looked up Hall Avenue and noticed that the vehicle had crashed into a guardrail in the area of 19 Hall Avenue.
The officer began to head that way since he observed two black men standing outside of the car. As he approached, the two men took off running behind the autobody shop located at 19 Hall Ave.
The officer ended up pursuing the men on foot and one of the men, Dudley, ended up falling at which time he was detained.
Numerous other patrol units responded and a Taurus 9mm handgun was located inside of the car that the two suspects had been in, police said.
Also with the gun was a 30 round high capacity magazine and (29) 9mm rounds of ammunition.
As Dudley was taken into custody a K-9 track was conducted in an attempt to locate the second man. The track ended with negative results.
Also located within the crashed vehicle was 3.2 grams of crack cocaine and a small amount of marijuana, as well as a hammer which was wrapped up in a cloth. It was located on the rear floorboard and tucked underneath the driver’s side seat.
The hammer raised the officer’s suspicions since there have had two recent commercial burglaries in which windows to the establishments were smashed with what was believed to be a hammer.
"Although we cannot confirm that this was the hammer used in either burglary, we will be investigating further to try and determine if this is the case," police said.
Dudley was charged with:
- Criminal possession of a firearm
- Weapons in a motor vehicle
- No pistol permit
- Possession of a high capacity magazine
- Possession of narcotics
- Possession of marijuana
He is being held on a $150,000 bond.
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