Responding to a call from Ridgefield Police that a resident of their town may be en route to South Norwalk to purchase drugs, Norwalk officers located the man Tuesday morning and charged him with drunken driving and having a weapon in a motor vehicle.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Lisa Cotto said Ridgefield Police notified Norwalk at 12:42 a.m. they were seeking Edward King in connection with a domestic incident, and that King was intoxicated and was last seen driving south on Rt. 7 and believed heading to Norwalk.
Cotto said Officer David Busch spotted King’s car in South Norwalk and after following it some distance, stopped it at the intersection South Main and Meadow streets. Busch approached the vehicle and reported King had the smell of alcohol on his breath and was slurring his words.
Busch removed King from the car and placed him in handcuffs. He reported King allegedly told him he was only drunk, not on drugs.
The officer reported finding a large knife in King’s car. He said King told him he had no intention of using the knife against his wife, but needed it to protect himself from the (blacks) in South Norwalk.
King allegedly used a racist term in referring to the black people from whom he needed to protect himself and, according to Cotto, he shouted out the word four times.
Concerned King’s remarks might trigger a disturbance, Busch put King in his patrol car and took him to Police Headquarters, Cotto said.
King allegedly told Busch he couldn’t be arrested because he only started drinking when he saw the officer and he was in a parked car at the time.
Cotto said King failed a field sobriety test and had his blood-alcohol content measured twice, both times yielding a reading of .19. The legal limit in the state for driving with an elevated blood-alcohol content is 0.08.
She said King also used a sexual vulgarity in describing his wife.
King, 28, of 217 High Ridge Rd., was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, and operating a motor vehicle with an expired registration.
Busch described the knife he found King with as being stainless steel, 13 inches long with an eight-inch-long fixed blade.
King was held on $2,500 bond and scheduled for a court date of Feb. 14.
Ridgefield Police requested King be held until a town officer could come to Norwalk to issue him a summons for the domestic incident he allegedly was involved in earlier.
