By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
MELVINDALE — Police officers arrested the driver of a silver 2013 Dodge Charger June 24 at a Lincoln Park motel, after he fled on foot following a high-speed vehicle chase that started in Melvindale and ended in Lincoln Park, in a crash that damaged his car and the pursuing police vehicle.
The passenger escaped, and remains at large.
When a Melvindale police officer spotted a Dodge Charger on Outer Drive near Dix with completely tinted windows and an expired tag on the license plate, he initiated a traffic stop. However, the driver accelerated, and headed to I-75, where he lost control on an on ramp and damaged a tire.
Undeterred, the Dodge Charger continued to flee on I-75, until it exited onto Southfield Road, where it struck a traffic signal sign and was disabled.
Two men, both black males, exited the vehicle and fled on foot. The pursuing police vehicle was damaged by the crash debris, which caused an oil leak, rendering the police vehicle undriveable.
After searching the Dodge Charger and discovering a tangled ownership trail for the vehicle, police officers received a tip that a suspect matching the description of the driver was at a Lincoln Park motel, where he was subsequently taken into custody.
He was charged with fleeing and eluding, with not have a driver’s license, and with the Dodge Charger not being registered in his name. He also had a .45-caliber pistol in the car, which he said he “bought on the street” a month earlier after two of his friends were murdered.
He said he fled since the vehicle wasn’t registered in his name, and he didn’t want to lose it to impoundment.