Burlington police have charged three people with possession of drugs after a police chase through Colchester Friday night that left two occupants of the fleeing vehicle dead.
Vermont State Police on Monday afternoon identified the deceased as Damanuel McLeod, 19, of Brooklyn, and Tywon Parker, 28, of the Bronx. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Tayami Barnes, 31, of the Bronx, and Ron Thomas, 21, of Brooklyn, were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine found at the scene of the crash, according to a Monday press release from the Burlington Police Department. A third person charged, from Richmond, Virginia, was not named by police because that person is a juvenile.
Burlington police said that all three were expected to face more charges, including aggravated assault.
Just before 7 p.m. on Friday, employees of a rental car company told Burlington police they had been threatened at gunpoint near Perkins Pier after trying to retrieve a car they had electronically tracked there, according to the Burlington police press release.
The five individuals refused to relinquish the car, threatening the employees with a firearm, police said. They abandoned the car, a white Ford Expedition, and moved with their backpacks into a second rental car, a black Ford Expedition, before fleeing the scene.
Burlington officers attempted to locate the vehicle as it traveled through Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski, in part by issuing alerts to neighboring police agencies, according to the release. Officers seized the white Expedition “in anticipation of applying for a search warrant.”
Members of the Burlington department’s drug unit recognized the descriptions and license plates of the vehicles “from numerous drug tips and an ongoing narcotics investigation,” police said. Officers eventually located the black car near Pearl Street Beverage around 7:25 p.m.
When officers approached the vehicle, it fled west on Pearl Street before turning toward Route 127 — known as the Beltline — into Colchester, police said.
Burlington police initially pursued the vehicle, but the suspect’s “high rate of speed and reckless operation” prompted police department supervisors to terminate the pursuit just north of the Beltline’s North Avenue exit.
According to descriptions provided by Burlington police and Vermont State Police, the vehicle continued into Colchester. Officers there “picked up the pursuit” after the vehicle nearly struck a Colchester police vehicle, state police said.
The car then crashed near Malletts Bay on East Lakeshore Drive. Barnes, Thomas and the juvenile were transported to the University of Vermont Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
None of the five occupants were properly restrained at the time of the crash, according to the Vermont State Police Crash Reconstruction Team.
Details surrounding the circumstances of Colchester’s pursuit and the moment of the crash have not been revealed. The Vermont State Police, which is investigating the matter, said it has not been able to establish who was driving the vehicle during the pursuit into Colchester.
The Colchester Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.
Read the story on VTDigger here: 3 face drug crimes after Friday’s deadly police chase through Colchester.