3 in custody after reckless driver flees Monroe County Sheriff's deputies
FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Monroe County man is in custody after leading deputies on a chase while driving drunk and recklessly Sunday.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, numerous drivers called to report a reckless driver on N. Dixie Hwy. near I-75 in Frenchtown Township around 8:45 p.m. A 21-year-old Newport man in a Jeep Cherokee was driving erratically and into oncoming traffic.
Deputies responded and found the Jeep stopped on N. Dixie Hwy just west of I-75. They contacted the driver, who didn't have a license and appeared intoxicated. When deputies told the suspect to get out of the vehicle, he fled. While running from authorities, the suspect continued to drive into oncoming traffic, the sheriff's office said. The chase continued onto Noble Avenue and then north on N. Monroe Street.
At one point, the suspect opened the front driver's side door and gave gestures to the deputies behind him.
The vehicle continued onto N. Telegraph Road and then stopped at Kimberly Estates Mobile Home Park, where one of the vehicle’s wheels became disabled.
The suspect ran away, but was caught. The sheriff's office said the man resisted arrest and assaulted deputies before he was finally arrested.
During the end of the chase, a second vehicle, a different Jeep Cherokee, interjected itself in the middle of pursuing deputies. When the chase came to an end and the suspect fled on foot, the two occupants of the second vehicle allegedly got out and interfered with and obstructed the attempts of deputies while they were arresting the driver.
The occupants of this second vehicle, a 24-year-old woman from Newport and a 54-year-old man from Detroit, were also both taken into custody for obstructing police.
Investigators are seeking charges of fleeing and eluding, assaulting police, resisting and obstructing, and operating while intoxicated against the original driver.