- A teen caught doing 132 mph told officers he was rushing to a job interview.
- Police called off the chase due to safety, but later tracked the suspect down.
- He faces nine separate charges including reckless driving and endangerment.
Running late happens to the best of us, but most people don’t respond by treating the highway like a personal racetrack. One 19-year-old in Connecticut, however, decided that making it to a job interview trumped traffic laws, public safety, and common sense, clocking in at 132 mph (212 km/h) while trying to dodge police.
The incident occurred Wednesday morning on Interstate 91 near Cromwell. At approximately 8:54 a.m., a Connecticut State Police trooper spotted a Mercedes-Benz E300 traveling significantly faster than the surrounding traffic. The officer activated the patrol car’s emergency lights and sirens in an attempt to initiate a traffic stop.
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Rather than pulling over, the teen driver pushed even harder on the gas, weaving through traffic with unsafe lane changes in an attempt to shake the trooper. Given the increasing risk to other drivers, the officer made the call to break off the pursuit. Before backing off, a speed laser had captured the Mercedes at a blistering 132 mph (212 km/h), more than enough to justify ending the chase for safety reasons.
Using the license plate of the speeding vehicle, police tracked down the registered owner. After contacting them by phone, they learned that a family member had been behind the wheel at the time, later identified as Azmir Djurkovic, a 19-year-old resident of Cromwell.
When officers contacted Djurkovic directly, he admitted to being behind the wheel during the attempted stop. His reason? His explanation? He was in a rush because he was late for a job interview. It sounds like something out of a B-level action comedy, but yes, that detail is actually included in the police report.
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The suspect later agreed to meet with troopers in Hartford, where he was taken into custody without further drama.
He now faces a laundry list of charges that reads like a crash course in what not to do on the road: Reckless Driving, Disobeying Signal of an Officer, Failure to Maintain Lane, Passing on the Right, Improper Turn, Passing at an Unsafe Distance, Engaging Police in a Pursuit, Interfering with an Officer, and Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree.
He was released on a $2,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in Middletown Superior Court on June 17. With any luck, he’ll get there at a more reasonable speed this time without putting other lives in danger.
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