Cops: New Haven Man Abandons Car with Drugs, Son Inside

A New Haven man allegedly took off after a Hamden cop pulled him over Tuesday afternoon, leaving behind in his car drugs and his 7-year-old son.

At about 3:00p.m. Officer Joseph Liguori of the Hamden Police Department saw a car blow  a stop sign at the intersection of Bowen  and Cherry Ann streets, according to police spokesman Capt. Ronald Smith.

He stopped the car on Elizabeth Street in New Haven, Smith said, when the driver, identified as Anthony Herring, 30, of 52 Howe Street, Apt. 309, New Haven, told the officer that he wasn't able to stop.

Police then followed the vehicle, Smith said, which struck a parked vehicle on Pond Street and eventually stopped in the middle of the road on Dixwell Avenue and Dorman Street. Herring then allegedly got out of the car and took off, Smith said, with Hamden police pursuing him.

Liguori soon caught him on Dixwell Avenue near Willis Street, Smith said, and it was then that Herring told the officer that his son was in the car. By then the boy's grandmother, who lives nearby, had taken him out of the car, Smith said.

Also in the car officers found 13 bags of marijuana and 3 bags of cocaine, Smith said, as well as drug paraphernalia, and on Herring himself they found 2.3 grams of marijuana.

Herring was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, risk of injury to a minor, possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia, engaging an officer in pursuit, operating without a license and failure to obey stop sign.

Herring was held in lieu of $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Meriden Superior Court on Oct. 1. The state Department of Children and Families also was notified of the incident, Smith said.