An Ansonia man accused of fighting with a police officer before leading cops on a highway chase was sentenced to three years in prison.
Kelvin Whitehurst, 28, formerly of Fifth Street, pleaded guilty at Superior Court in Derby Aug. 24 to engaging police in pursuit, assaulting a public safety officer, criminal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, and possession of cocaine with intent to sell, according to court records.
He is scheduled to be released from the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in 2017, to be followed by four years of special parole, according to court records.
Whitehurst has been in jail since Aug. 21, 2014, when he was arrested in Shelton after a police chase that began in Ansonia.
The chase began because Whitehurst had been identified as a suspect who allegedly tried to pull a gun on Ansonia Police Officer Joseph Jackson on Aug. 14, 2014, in the parking lot of Banana Market on Maple Street.
Jackson had seen Whitehurst allegedly drinking alcohol from an open container outside the store and approached him.
The two got into a scuffle, during which police said Whitehurst pulled a gun from his pants and threw it into his car before running from the area across the Maple Street bridge.
The incident prompted an hours-long manhunt during which Whitehurst was not caught.
But a week later, Ansonia cops saw Whitehurst in the Division Street area and tried to stop him. He led cops in a chase onto Route 8 southbound.
Whitehurst crashed his car near exit 11 in Shelton and ran away.
Police caught him in the parking lot of a nearby Burger King on Bridgeport Avenue.
