Watch: Brothers surrender to helicopter after Mass. police pursuit

By Russell Blair
Hartford Courant

LUDLOW, Mass. — Two brothers from Connecticut face a host of charges after they led Massachusetts State Police on a chase along I-84 Tuesday that ended with them surrendering to a police helicopter that was monitoring the scene, authorities said.

Massachusetts State Police released an 11-minute video from the agency’s Air 5 helicopter that showed the suspects’ car existing the highway and driving erratically along local roads before pulling over in a residential neighborhood.

“Passenger door is opening ... hands are up ... we have two people out of the vehicle, hands up, looking at us,” a law enforcement officer in the helicopter reports. “They’re getting prone on the ground.”

Troopers arrived within moments and took Oscar Santiago, 25, of Hartford, and Omar Santiago, 25, of New Britain, into custody.

The chase began shortly before noon when a trooper watching traffic on I-84 in Sturbridge saw a black Acura sedan pass by with no front license plate, police said.

The trooper caught up to the car and saw it make erratic lane changes and cut off other motorists. He activated his lights and siren and moved to pull the car over after witnessing it make an illegal u-turn, police said.

But the Acura refused to stop and Trooper Brian Gervais gave chase. He broke off the pursuit shortly after but the police helicopter monitoring the scene continued to maintain a visual of the brothers’ car.

“While Air 5 was observing the Acura from a distance the operator continued to disobey traffic laws with no cruisers in pursuit,” Massachusetts State Police said. “However, the vehicle eventually stopped and all parties exited surrendering to the Air Wing. Multiple cruisers arrived on scene and quickly took two of the vehicle’s occupants into custody.”

A third person in the vehicle was not charged.

The brothers each face 13 charges including reckless operation of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a property damage crash and failure to stop for police. Oscar Santiago faced an additional charge for driving without a license.

(c)2021 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)