HAMMOND | Federal authorities claim a 26-year-old Plymouth man with a gun strapped to his ankle struggled with police after he drove into a drunken driving checkpoint Nov. 7 in Lake Station with a heroin-dusted dinner plate on his passenger-side floorboard.
Ty Brock is charged in Hammond federal court with heroin possession with intent to distribute and gun possession while trafficking drugs.
Brock's trouble started when he drove a blue 1994 Mercury into a sobriety checkpoint along Ripley Street staffed with officers from several local police departments, according to a report by an officer assigned to the Lake County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force. A Cedar Lake officer watched Brock shake nervously during the stop and the officer smelled an "overwhelming" marijuana scent from the car, the HIDTA officer wrote. On the passenger side of the car, a St. John officer with a flashlight spotted the dinner plate, a razor blade and a plastic straw, according to the report.
The officers ordered Brock to put his hands on his head, but Brock reached out to try to flip the plate, the HIDTA officer wrote. The Cedar Lake officer grabbed Brock and told him to exit the car, according to the report.
After Brock got out of the car, he reached for his ankle, the HIDTA officer wrote. The Cedar Lake officer told Brock to put his hands up, but Brock refused, according to the report. The two officers were joined by another St. John officer, and the three tried to wrestle Brock into control, the HIDTA officer wrote.
After Brock was handcuffed, the officers found a .32-caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistol in an ankle holster, according to the report.
One of the St. John officers suffered bruises and swelling to his hand in the struggle, according to the report.
A search of the car turned up an inventory of drugs, guns, pills and drug paraphernalia, the officer wrote. The officers found another semiautomatic handgun, heroin, several containers of marijuana, a smoking pipe, a variety of prescription pills, a digital scale and a measuring spoon, according to the report. A few pills were hidden in Brock's key ring and others were stowed in a WD-40 can with a false bottom, the officer wrote.
Brock is slated for a hearing in Hammond federal court Thursday. He is being held in the Lake County Jail.
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