By Jackson Gardner / The Chronicle
An Arlington man accused of leading law enforcement on a 30-mile chase on U.S. Highway 12 before being stopped with a spike strip Tuesday made his preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Tyler M. Long, 26, was charged with attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle and escape from community custody on Wednesday.
Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello requested bail be set at $50,000, noting a criminal history that includes felony convictions for escape from community custody, theft of a motor vehicle as well as several robbery and identity theft convictions.
Superior Court Judge James Lawler agreed and established bail at $50,000.
The affidavit of probable cause gives the following account of the pursuit:
On Sept. 29, a state patrol trooper attempted to stop a vehicle on U.S. Highway 12 near milepost 101 just outside of Morton after it was spotted driving westbound at a speed of 97 miles per hour.
When the trooper attempted to stop the vehicle, it began driving over the centerline of the highway in no-passing zones to pass the slower moving vehicles.
The suspect vehicle would reach speeds of 110 miles per hour and reportedly had near collisions with other vehicles while driving in the oncoming traffic lane and running through a red light.
The trooper reportedly chased the suspect vehicle for approximately 30 miles until they reached the intersection of Jackson Highway and Highway 12 where deputies from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office were waiting to end the pursuit. Deputies blocked off crossroads and set spike strips at the intersection.
The driver of the suspect vehicle, identified as Long, hit part of a spike strip and his vehicle ended up running off the road and through a cow pasture, causing damage to a fence and the vehicle.
The Washington State Patrol advised that the vehicle, which had been spray painted a different color, had been stolen two days earlier out of Everett.
Troopers reported that Long appeared to be “on the nod” and Long admitted to injecting heroin 20 minutes prior to the pursuit and “swallowing everything else” once the pursuit ended.
Law enforcement searched the car and found spray paint cans that matched the color of the spray painted vehicle, syringes containing suspected heroin and methamphetamine and suspected burglary tools.
Long told police that his former drug dealer had offered him more drugs if he drove the vehicle north of Tacoma. Long was not sure what city he was in at the time of his arrest.
The state patrol was later advised that the same vehicle had been involved in a pursuit in Clark County earlier in the morning on the same day, but the vehicle had gotten away.
Long is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 8.
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