Peter Yankowski
Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
WATERBURY, Conn. — Police have released dash camera footage from the arrest of a man last week who they said tried to flee in a stolen Jeep, crashing into multiple vehicles and a dumpster before fleeing on foot.
The man, 22-year-old Daniel Hunter, was apprehended and is facing multiple charges that include reckless driving and larceny of a motor vehicle (first offense), Waterbury police said. Police also said they located a loaded handgun that was also stolen, fentanyl and cocaine and multiple stolen credit cards and ID cards in the crashed Jeep.
Waterbury police posted a video of the Dec. 6 arrest to the department’s Instagram account that had been spliced together from officers’ dash and body cameras. Portions of the clip were slowed down or had markers added to highlight damage from the crash.
The video opens from the dashboard of a cruiser, as several police vehicles pursue the gray Jeep SUV into a parking lot with lights flashing. The driver of the Jeep attempts to turn around in the lot, and the footage slows to show the car slamming into a parked car, which is pushed sideways into a dumpster.
The Jeep driver attempts to drive through a pincer between the parked car and another police vehicle, but slams into the recording cruiser head-on as it moves to block him in.
With the Jeep boxed in, police swarm in on foot with their guns drawn, yelling at the driver to get out of the car and show his hands. As officers slam on the driver’s side window and glass, the dash video captures the driver of the Jeep bailing out of the passenger side.
“Other side!” one of the officers yells to his colleagues.
The officers race after the fleeing driver, one of them leaping over the hood of the cruiser pinning the Jeep head-on.
The footage then cuts between a camera on the ground and an officer’s body camera showing police hauling the driver down from a fence he was trying to scale and putting him in cuffs.
A final slowed-down clip of an officer’s body camera footage surveys the damage to several vehicles at the scene.
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Waterbury police said the incident began around 9 a.m. when law enforcement officers from Waterbury and multiple task forces executed a search warrant at an apartment in the 150 block of Grove Street. Authorities also had a warrant for Hunter’s arrest related to the stolen Jeep, police said in a news release.
During the execution of the search warrant, officers saw Hunter getting into a gray Jeep Cherokee that had been reported stolen out of Madison, police said.
“As officers approached, Hunter attempted to flee in the vehicle, colliding with three parked cars, three police cruisers, and a large dumpster,” the news release provided by a Waterbury police spokesperson said. “Despite his efforts, Hunter was quickly apprehended after exiting the Jeep and attempting to escape on foot.”
Police recovered a loaded 9 mm Taurus handgun from inside the Jeep, which they said had been reported stolen out of Pennsylvania. The car also contained “multiple stolen credit cards, identification cards, and additional evidence related to other incidents,” police said.
Police said Hunter was also “in possession of” distribution-amounts of fentanyl and cocaine.
In addition to the reckless driving and motor vehicle larceny charges, Hunter also is charged with theft of a firearm, first-degree criminal mischief, second-degree criminal trover, interfering with an officer, weapons in a motor vehicle, criminal possession of ammunition, illegal sale or transfer of a firearm, criminal possession of a pistol or revolver, driving without a license, unsafe movement from a stopped position, and two counts possession of narcotics with intent to sell, police said.
Hunter previously was convicted of narcotics felonies, making it illegal for him to possess a gun or ammunition, police said.
He was held in lieu of $800,000 bail and is expected to be charged in other, separate stolen car incidents, police said.
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