Lang
1/30/21
A police chase on Melrose Avenue has led to the arrest of a pair of armed suspects with previous weapons convictions.
According to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were responding to a medical emergency just after 11 Friday morning when they observed a hit-and-run accident at the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Mormon Trek Boulevard. A Cadillac involved in the incident fled the scene westbound on Melrose, and the deputies began a pursuit. The Cadillac crashed into a ditch as it was trying to turn southbound onto Highway 218.
Deputies say two men then exited the vehicle and tried to flee on foot. At one point one of the men, identified as 18-year-old Marwan Abdull Maged of the Pheasant Ridge Apartments on Bartelt Road, allegedly threw a gun to the other suspect, identified as 20-year-old Zackarie Porter of Glen Oaks Drive in Coralville, but the gun fell into the snow. Abdull Maged was arrested after he fell into the snow and gave himself up. Porter also eventually gave up and was taken into custody.
A backpack containing a handgun was found near where Porter exited the vehicle. He later admitted it was his work backpack.
Abdull Maged was given a suspended sentence in December after a shots fired incident on Westwinds Drive last June. He’s now charged with Eluding, Dominion or Control of a Firearm By a Felon, Carrying Weapons, and Interference With Official Acts. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of nine years in prison.
Porter was convicted on a 1st Degree Robbery charge as a juvenile and was given a suspended sentence last April after he was found with a gun at Laundromania on Mormon Trek Boulevard late Christmas Eve 2019. He now faces the same charges as Abdull Maged.