Police Car Chase Ends With a K-9 Bite in Manchester

It began with an attempted motor vehicle stop and ended with a pair of alleged car thieves being subdued by K-9 units.

Two New Haven men are facing larceny and other motor vehicle charges after police said they were caught driving a stolen Mini Cooper on the Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield early Wednesday morning.

But, according to a news release, the two men — identified as Jarelle Gibbs and Tarese Scruggs, both 19 — didn't surrender lightly. They engaged Wethersfield police in a pursuit that carried on Route 3 into Glastonbury and ended after they fled the stolen vehicle on a side road in Manchester, according to a news release from the Wethersfield Police Department.

Around 12:11 a.m. a Wethersfield officer going north on the Silas Deane Highway saw a blue Mini Cooper driving slowly in the same direction. The officer thought the car could be “casing the area,” meaning he felt the Cooper may have been scoping the premises to commit a crime, Lt. Andrew Power said.

When the officer ran the Mini Cooper’s registration number he found that it was listed as a stolen vehicle, police said.

The officer pursued the car as it drove toward the Putnam Bridge into Glastonbury. He activated his lights and sirens and, while the Mini initially slowed down, it then accelerated and drove off, police said.

After pursuing the car through Glastonbury and East Hartford, the chase ended on the dead end Wilfred Road in Manchester. At that point, two people jumped from the car and fled, while the officer — assisted by a K-9 officer from the East Hartford Police Department — were able to subdue the two suspects, police said. 

The K-9 caught one suspect, Scruggs, the passenger in the car, and bit him in the leg causing him to fall over and give up, police said. The second suspect, Gibbs, the driver, ran into a guardrail and was then tackled by the East Hartford K-9 officer, police said.

Police said neither Gibbs nor Scruggs required immediate medical attention, however ambulance personnel treated Gibbs and Scruggs at the scene for skin abrasions.

The Mini was towed back to the Wethersfield Police Department and is being held by request for the Guilford Police Department, police said.

Scruggs, of 4 Little Green Street in New Haven, was charged with the following:

• Third-degree larceny
• Interfering with an officer
• Engaging in pursuit
• Reckless driving
• Driving under suspension

Scruggs, of 880 Elm St. in New Haven, was charged with the following:

• Third-degree larceny
• Interfering with an officer
• Possession of less than .5 ounces of marijuana

Both were held on $75,000 bonds and are due in court on Wednesday.

Scruggs has an active warrant for a charge of violation of probation, and Gibbs had an active warrant for first-degree failure to appear.