A Connecticut woman already wanted for leading police in a pursuit last week attempted a chaotic retreat Thursday when cops closed in on her outside a Norwich area gas station.
Connecticut State Police located Electra Chiulli traveling eastbound on Route 2 in a black Subaru Legacy with no front license plate that was swerving between lanes. A trooper then followed the suspect to a Route 97 service station in Norwich, where other officers soon arrived.
Cops said that knowing Chiulli’s history as a flight risk, officers used a “box-in technique” to prevent her from speeding away. When the 33-year-old Old Saybrook resident refused to exit her car, police said they smashed her sedan’s rear window in an attempt to “escort” her from the vehicle.
As seen in police dashcam video, Chiulli responded by throwing her car into reverse, revving the engine and smashing into the driver’s side door of a cop cruiser. She then accelerated backward and slammed into a gas pump at the station.
“She accelerated forward again, ramming a second State Police cruiser, forcing her way past the vehicles and exiting the gas station parking lot,” police said in their report.
Chiulli then headed north to Lisbon at a “high rate of speed” before smashing into a guardrail while attempting a left turn. She allegedly abandoned her damaged car on foot and hid under the deck of a house, where she was found by police and taken into custody.
Cops said they found “numerous bundles of suspected narcotics and narcotic paraphernalia” when Chiulli was arrested.
No injuries were reported to any officers or members of the public.
Chiulli is facing 14 charges of varying degrees. Her bond was set at $500,000.