Convicted Felon Turns Self In after Crashing into Conn. Police Station Gate

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A driver who was able to elude police despite having crashed through the department's parking lot gate in April was arrested Thursday, police said.

Eliu Claudio, 44, of Hartford, a felon, had a gun on the front seat of the car that night, police say. He turned himself in Thursday on nine charges that include illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, drinking while driving and two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment.

Police first encountered Claudio in the early-morning darkness on April 28. He was behind the wheel of a car that was stopped in the middle of Miller Road, near Abbe Road, passed out, with an open beer can in the center cupholder, Lt. Mark Cleverdon said.

As officers approached, they noticed a gun with an extended magazine on the front seat, Cleverdon said Friday, and as a felon, Claudio cannot legally possess a gun.

Although he initially was cooperative, Claudio then took off, and the car sped toward the intersection of Miller and Nevers roads, Cleverdon said. Police didn't know which way the driver went on Nevers, and it turned out he had taken a left toward the police station, which sits at the bottom of Nevers Road on Sand Hill Road, a T-shaped intersection.

He then went through a stop sign at Nevers and Sand Hill roads and proceeded to travel straight into the police station driveway, smashing into the police department gate, Cleverdon said, apparently thinking the road continued.

"That driveway is directly across from the intersection," he said in April.

Claudio put the car into reverse and again fled, refusing to stop for police, Cleverdon said.

Claudio's other charges are reckless driving, evading responsibility, failure to drive right, violation of a traffic control signal, failure to obey a stop sign and interfering with police.

He was released from custody after posting $50,000 bail, Cleverdon said.

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