Car chase ends in arrest for city man
WOONSOCKET – After frightening the tenants of Walnut Hill Apartments, an erratic driver was later captured by police and charged with drunken driving, assault and resisting arrest Saturday night.
Police said they captured Edgar Torres, 22, of 2203 Diamond Hill Road, shortly after 10 p.m. in the parking lot of McDonald’s after chasing his white Lincoln westbound on Diamond Hill Road at speeds of approximately 60 mph.
Police said Torres turned into the lot without signaling in what appeared to be “a hastily made decision.” After parking at a “crooked,” irregular angle, he exited his vehicle without being asked to do so, then refused to get back in – just the beginning of what police described as a series of unruly and combative behaviors from Torres.
Torres allegedly refused to get in a police cruiser, cursed at officers repeatedly and kicked at the back door of the cruiser for over two minutes before officers were able to get him safely contained in the vehicle. They later found a “box” of Heineken in his car, including an open bottle in the cup holder.
The contentious behavior continued at police headquarters, where Torres refused to sign a form indicating that he’d been read his rights – and then refused to sign a waiver, at one point “flinging his copy of the rights form to the floor,” according to Whiting.
But it was what he did after being escorted to Cell 3 that caused police to lodge two counts of assault against him. As he was being placed in the cell, Torres allegedly turned around and faced two officers – Whiting and Patrol Officer Justin Mowry – then spat directly into their faces.
At that point one of the officers pepper-sprayed Torres, who then “retreated into a seated position” in the cell, a police report says.
Because Torres’ saliva landed in the eye of one officer and the mouth of another – they officers didn’t just wash up, their reports say – they “decontaminated themselves” and filled out a required “exposure report.”
The episode began after dispatch received a call from the security office at Walnut Hill Apartments explaining that a man in a white Lincoln had been driving erratically in the parking lot of the multiunit complex. At one point, the man got out of the vehicle and began knocking on doors – creating a disturbance that may have been associated with a lover’s quarrel. Witnesses said they heard Torres arguing with someone.
When police arrived, Torres was nowhere in sight, but a security officer said he suspected the operator might be hiding in a separate parking area common to the housing complex, waiting for them to leave.
Moments later, Whiting heard an engine rumble to life and the squeal of tires as the suspect vehicle passed
the complex at “an alarming rate of speed inbound on Diamond Hill Road.”
In addition to the criminal charges, Torres was cited for a number of vehicular offenses, including refusal to submit to a breath alcohol test; speeding; failure to exercise due care in starting; and operating without a valid license.
During a preliminary appearance in Sixth District
Court on Monday, a judge set bail on the charges at $3,000 with surety, but Torres was remanded to the Adult Correctional Institutions for violating his probation on a domestic assault conviction in July. No new date was set for a hearing, according to the judiciary’s web site.