Stratford Dad Charged After Child, Drugs, Gun Found In SUV: Cops

MARLBOROUGH, MA — A Stratford man faces several charges after Massachusetts state troopers found a gun, a cache of drugs, and a sleeping child inside an SUV that was pulled over for speeding.

The incident began just after 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, when a state trooper noticed the large SUV traveling along Interstate 290 going about 20 mph over the speed limit. The trooper then watched the SUV careen around the on-ramp to northbound Interstate 495 in Marlborough.

The driver, Anthony Oliver, 28, of Stratford, was in the rented SUV with his 5-year-old son, who was sleeping in the back seat.

After discovering that Oliver was not the person who originally rented the SUV — and that the vehicle was supposed to have been returned Monday — troopers took Oliver outside the vehicle and patted him down. They found suspected marijuana in one pocket, and then Oliver began to flail around, police said.

"Both Troopers then grabbed Oliver's arms to gain control of him and remove his hand from his pocket," state police said in a news release. "The suspect began to flail and kick and was attempting to remove what appeared to the troopers to be a hard object from his right pocket."

The troopers found a loaded .32 caliber revolver in Oliver's pocket. After searching the SUV, troopers found more ammunition, plus bags full of powdered drugs believed to be either fentanyl or cocaine, and a bag of ecstasy, according to police.

Oliver was arrested on charges of reckless child endangerment, weapons violations, drug trafficking, resisting arrest, possession of a class C drug, and speeding.

A relative of the child picked him up at the Leominster barracks, and child protective services in Connecticut was notified of Oliver's arrest.