An Evesham couple is facing charges related to a wild police chase that left several police officers – including a K-9 – injured.
Authorities say that the pair had been on the Evesham Police Department’s radar for at least a year. They say that officers came face-to-face with the couple on Sunday, which is when they attempted to run away. The couple allegedly rammed into several police cars, including one with a K-9 unit.
Police body camera video released by police shows the moments when officers pulled up to the home where Marc Ferraiolo and Ruth Patton live with Ferraiolo’s mother. The video appears to show Ferraiolo trying to flee the scene and crash into the police vehicles. Two officers and a K-9 officer suffered minor injuries and are expected to be OK.
Officials say the couple hatched a plan to kill police officers.
“The manifestation of their actions that we witnessed was the carrying out of that plan,” Evesham Police Chief Walt Miller said.
Police say the two were first spotted earlier that night by police, driving 80 mph in a 45-mph zone. Police briefly chased the white sedan the two were riding in and when that became a danger to the community, they got a warrant to arrest the couple at their home. This is when the interaction with the police escalated.
“The driver drove his vehicle forward to distance himself from the officers. As soon as he gained that distance, he threw his car in reverse and maneuvered the vehicle in the direction of two officers that were standing on the side of the road,” Miller said.
Ferraiolo and Patton are no strangers to local police, according to neighbors. People who live on their street say they’ve been the “neighbors from hell” for at least the last two years of the six years they’ve lived there. Police reports of the complaints go back at least a year.
“It first started with him leaving inappropriate notes on my underaged daughter’s car…the wife took a metal pole to my husband’s car and beat on it,” says neighbor Kate Stiles.
“He has a fixation with fireworks, and he lit fireworks off in his bedroom,” says neighbor Monica Atcheson.
The neighbors say that they can now breathe a sigh of relief.
“I’m feeling relieved as long as neither one of them gets out of jail,” says Stiles.
Ferraiolo and Patton are now at the Burlington County Jail and facing a number of charges, including attempted murder of a police officer and terroristic threats.