Stolen Pickup Driver Nearly Strikes Cruiser, Charged with DUI

Warwick, RI — Stealing a pickup, nearly striking a police cruiser with it and getting arrested for DUI would be a full day for anybody, but one Warwick man packed that all in to the first 40 minutes of Oct. 19.

 

Officer Ryan Lancaster was driving north on Metro Center Boulevard toward the Greenwich Ave. intersection at 12:40 a.m. when he saw a grey Chevy pickup make a left from Greenwich Avenue onto the boulevard toward him. The truck swerved into the officer’s lane in the process, nearly striking his cruiser, according to the officer’s report.

The near-crash drew the officer’s attention to the truck, so he turned around and began following it, estimating its speed at about 60 mph as it swerved many times. The officer caught up to the truck without putting on his lights or siren, then saw the vehicle go past a stop sign without slowing, the officer reported. At this point, he turned on his lights and siren to make a traffic stop.

The truck stopped in a parking lot at the intersection of Metro Center Boulevard and Kilvert Street. As Lancaster pulled behind the truck, the driver got out and started running toward Rte. 95.

Lancaster chased the driver on foot, yelling at him to stop and get on the ground. As the officer got within 100 feet of the driver, the man stopped running and got on the ground, allowing the officer to catch and handcuff him.

Lancaster identified the driver as Jake Cabral, 18, of 27 Potomac Road, Warwick, although the man did not have a driver’s license on his person.

The officer also noted a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, that his eyes were bloodshot, his speech slurred and his stance unsteady. The officer asked him if he’d been drinking. Cabral said he wouldn’t answer any questions. Lancaster asked him to perform sobriety tests, which Cabral refused. Lancaster arrested him and placed him in the rear seat of his cruiser, and transported him to Warwick Police Headquarters at 99 Veterans Memorial Drive.

A check of the registration on the pickup showed the truck wasn’t registered to Cabral. Lancaster asked about this, but Cabral only said he had borrowed the truck, then added, “I won’t say anything else incriminating,” the officer reported.

The owner of the truck, a Warwick resident, had not, in fact, given Cabral permission to borrow the pickup, and decided to pursue charges against Cabral.

Lancaster charged Cabral with possession of a stolen vehicle, a felony. He also charged him with DUI, blood alcohol unknown, and cited the driver for failure to obey stop signs, lane violations, and refusing to submit to a chemical test.