EVERETT — Bail was maintained at $10,000 Monday for a Lake Stevens man accused of sideswiping a sheriff’s office patrol car during a high-speed chase Saturday.
Speeds reached up to 100 mph on South Machias Road during the pursuit, according to court papers.
The suspect, 26, allegedly was spotted driving a stolen 1990 Acura Integra late Saturday morning. A Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy began following the car, which at one point forced an oncoming Washington State Patrol vehicle to veer to the shoulder, according to court papers.
The pursuit included county, state patrol and City of Snohomish patrol cars.
On OK Mill Road, the deputy was able to get his car close enough to bump the rear corner of the Acura to get it to spin out, according to court papers. The strategy is known as the pursuit immobilization technique, or PIT maneuver.
“It was at this time that the Acura continued to willfully accelerate into the left side of my patrol vehicle,” the deputy wrote in a report. “I was surprised by the collision and jerked my leg away from the door for fear the impact would collapse the door inward towards the driver’s seat and injure me.”
Moments later, the deputy heard a collision.
A City of Snohomish police car struck the Acura, trying to get it to stop, Snohomish police Cmdr. A.J. Bryant said.
The Acura, despite extensive damage and a smoking right rear tire, kept going.
The deputy watched the Acura spin out of control in the 1300 block of S. Lake Stevens Road. It came to a stop. When the driver showed no sign of trying to get out of the car “and seemed intent on driving away from the spin out,” the deputy drove his car about 25 mph into the right front wheel of the Acura in an effort to disable it and end the pursuit, according to court records.
The impact caused the officer’s airbag to deploy and pushed the Acura into a ditch.
The driver got out and ran. The deputy spotted him running down a paved driveway and behind a house.
Police converged on the area and a police dog tracked the suspect to the crawl space of a home in the 1400 block of South Davies Road.
The suspect told the officer he had used methamphetamine earlier in the day.
He was arrested for investigation of third-degree assault, two counts of possessing stolen vehicles, burglary, attempting to elude police and five counts of vehicle prowling. He also had outstanding warrants for theft and driving with a suspended license.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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