Report: Drug Dealer Flees Police, Discards Heroin Packets Near Child

The following police reports are obtained directly from the Middletown Police public information officer and inclusion on this list reflect charges filed, not convictions.

A man stopped for not wearing a seat belt led officers on a foot chase through city streets past elementary school children waiting for the bus, then threw a bundle of heroin at the feet of a 5-year-old girl, according to Middletown Police.

On Sept. 25 at 8:25 a.m., Tyrone M. Mercer, 51, of no certain address was driving a Jeep Cherokee on Main Street at Kings Avenue. 

Once stopped, the report says, he pulled into a parking stall and while walking away, a cellophane bag of heroin dropped on the ground. 

Mercer returned to the car while officers searched it and then fled on foot, according to the report, through a Ferry Street driveway into a Main Street rear parking lot where small children were waiting for the school bus, then threw a bundled package of heroin near a 5-year-old girl's feet. 

He was found with 14 bags of heroin totaling 4.3 grams, another bag with .1 grams of crack.

Mercer was charged with failure to wear seat belt, violation of exhaust standards, operation when license suspended, two counts possession of controlled substances, risk of injury to a child and interfering with an officer. 

Mercer is being held on a $50,000 bond and is due back in court on Oct. 2.