Holly MatkinParamus, NJ – A convicted felon with a carload of heroin and cocaine brawled with New Jersey police after crashing his car during a chase on Tuesday.
The incident began shortly after midnight on Aug. 24, when Paramus Police Department (PPD) Officer Michael Mordaga spotted a 2013 Chevrolet Equinox speeding down Route 17, PPD Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg told the Paramus Daily Voice.
Officer Mordaga tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver refused to pull over, Chief Ehrenberg said.
The suspect was later identified as 46-year-old David Turner, a convicted felon who served nearly two decades in prison for shooting a man in the neck over a drug debt, the Paramus Daily Voice reported.
Turner continued fleeing from Officer Mordaga at a “high rate of speed” as additional officers joined the chase, according to the Paramus Patch.
As he approached the exit for Route 4, Turner lost control of the Equinox and slammed into a guardrail, police said.
The violent felon resisted arrest when police tried to take him into custody and “struck the officers,” the PPD said.
He was ultimately subdued and placed under arrest, the Paramus Patch reported.
Turner was transported to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center before being booked into the Bergen County Jail.
The extent of any injuries the officers suffered is unknown.
Officers allegedly located 140 packages of suspected heroin and 25 packages of suspected cocaine when they searched Turner’s vehicle, the Paramus Patch reported.
They said they also found a machete in the SUV.
Turner now faces charges of resisting arrest, assault on an officer, eluding, and heroin and cocaine possession, the Paramus Patch reported.
The suspect served 15 years in prison after after having been convicted of attempted murder in the 1998 shooting, the Paramus Daily Voice reported.
He was released from prison in June of 2015, but landed a firearms possession charge within three months.
Turner served another five years on the gun charge before being released back into the community yet again.
