State Police Dog Snags Gun In Vernon Pursuit Involving Manchester Man

VERNON, CT — A Manchester man is in custody on a $500,000 bond in connection with a wintertime pursuit on Interstate 84 and two state secondary roads in Vernon that led to a police dog recovering a stolen gun, authorities said.

Jaylenn Baez, 29, is due back in Rockville Superior Court on May 30, judicial system records show. On April 13, at 6:40 a.m., the Wethersfield Police Department contacted the state police Troop C barracks to say that Baez had been picked up on an outstanding warrant.

The warrant for Baez's arrest stemmed from a Feb. 21 incident in which Baez engaged Troopers in pursuit and stopped after the vehicle's engine blew. The pursuit began at the I-84 eastbound Exit 67 interchange, when a state trooper noticed Baez's black Infiniti with an overly dark window tint, and began tailing the car according to a warrant.

Baez tried to sneak into the shell station at the intersection of routes 31 and 30 in an effort to play coy, but eventually made his way back to I-84, where he blew an engine near Exit 66 with the trooper still behind him, according to a warrant.

Baez then left the car and fled on foot, according to a warrant. He managed to crawl into a sewage pipe and escape before Troop C police dog Zeke located it, but in the process dropped a gun, which Zeke found, according to a warrant. The gun was determined to be stolen out of Hartford in 2023.

Baez was known to be at a nearby business but was later picked up by an unknown vehicle prior to state police getting there, according to a warrant. The Infiniti was seized, and a later search uncovered more than 60 grams of suspected fentanyl, and other narcotics paraphernalia, according to a warrant.

Baez has been charged with:

• Misuse of a registration plate
• Violation of display of registration plates
• Reckless driving
• Disobeying the signal of an officer
• Engaging police in a pursuit
• Violation of traffic control signals
• Illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle
• Interfering with police
• Stealing a firearm
• First-degree reckless endangerment

Baez, who is listed on several outstanding cases, was also charged on an active failure to appear warrant, state police said.