Police: Fort Lee Man High on PCP Screamed Racial Slurs at Cops

A Fort Lee man, high on PCP, led Palisades Interstate Parkway Police on a two-mile chase before injuring an officer and yelling racial slurs, police said Monday.

Thomas E. Nash, 43, was driving a 1965 Ford Pickup northbound along the Parkway when PIP Detective Jeffrey Kimbro tried to pull him over for speeding and erratic driving Friday morning, according to a police statement. Kimbro chased Nash for two miles before the truck stopped near Interchange 4.

Kimbro conducted a field sobriety test after suspecting Nash was high on drugs, police said. Nash also gave police consent to search his truck, where authorities reported they found a clear plastic bag of suspected PCP and rolling papers.

Two other PIP police officers, Robert Littlejohn and Raymond Walter, responded to assist Kimbro. As police were taking Nash into custody, he launched into a violent rage, resisted officers and screamed racial slurs at them, authorities said.

“One officer received minor injuries while taking the operator in custody,” Acting Police Chief Michael Coppola said the statement. “Once in custody, the operator continued racially charged belligerent comments toward the officers and on several occasions threatened to kill them.”

Nash damaged a patrol car by kicking the back door and windows before being taken to headquarters, police said.

He was charged with bias intimidation, criminal mischief, possession of PCP, possession of drug paraphernalia, terroristic threats, being under the influence of a narcotic, resisting arrest, aggravated assault on a police officer, driving while intoxicated and refusal to submit to a breath test. Nash was ordered held at the Bergen County Jail on $60,000 bail, with no ten percent option ahead of a court appearance Tuesday.