Officer Michael Cleary was responding to an attempted car burglary call on Midland Avenue when he spotted the 2020 Honda Accord with three occupants shortly after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Paramus Police Kenneth Ehrenberg said.
The license plate came back to a 2006 Infiniti, the chief said, so Cleary pulled the sedan over at Route 17.
As he walked up to the vehicle, the driver -- Tyrese Dunn -- hit the gas and sped off north on the highway, Ehrenberg said.
Cleary began pursuing the Accord, which pulled away at dangerously high speed, he said.
The vehicle was out of the officer's sight when Dunn turned off at Glen Avenue and the Honda slammed into a tree, Ehrenberg said.
Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus police were among the responders to the crash, the chief said.
It turns out the Accord had been reported stolen out of Princeton, Ehrenberg said. Inside it police found several stolen wallets, credit cards, IDs and key fobs, he said.
They arrested Dunn along with his passengers: Devyn Alonso, 24, of Bogota, and Andy Casiano, 33, of Brooklyn.
At only 20 years old, Dunn already has begun amassing a rap sheet that includes an arrest in Bogota in September for aggravated assault, criminal restraint, weapons possession and criminal mischief.
Police sent him to the Bergen County Jail only to have a judge in Hackensack release him the very same day under New Jersey's 2017 bail reform law, records show.
Several weeks later, police in Teaneck arrested Dunn on simple assault and false inprisonment charges. Once again, a judge sprung him from the jail that same day.
Following Wednesday's crash, Dunn was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center and sent again to the county lockup.
He remained there Thursday pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack on multiple counts of receiving stolen property and resisting arrest.
Alonso and Casiano were both released under bail reform.
ALSO SEE: Bail reform is one of the key reasons why the half-empty Passaic County Jail will close its doors for good and send all of its current and future inmates to Bergen County's lockup, officials said. READ MORE....
Click here to follow Daily Voice Lakewood and receive free news updates.