Perp In Stolen Vehicle OutSmarts Arkansas State Police In Wild Police Chase

On Sunday, August 25, 2024, at approximately 1:35 A.M., I, Trooper Bryan Rose, with the Arkansas State Police was patrolling on State Highway 18 near Manila when I observed a vehicle that appeared to be traveling at a high rate of speed eastbound on State Highway 18. I activated my front radar and clocked the vehicle to be traveling at sixty miles per hour in a forty-mile-per- hour zone. I turned my patrol vehicle around and got behind the vehicle. I activated my blue lights to initiate a traffic stop with the vehicle at Jordan’s gas station in Manila. The vehicle pulled into the gas station, and I approached the driver's side of the vehicle, identified myself and explained the reason for the stop. I observed a single black male occupant in the vehicle that appeared to be very nervous and stated he was nervous because he had just gotten done smoking marijuana an hour before being stopped. I then asked for his driver’s license, insurance, and registration. He stated he did not have his driver’s license on him. I then had him write his name and date of birth down for me. The driver identified himself as Demarcus Gooch with a date of birth of 02-22-2002 out of Tennessee. I returned to my patrol vehicle to conduct a driver’s license and warrant check on the name and date of birth provided with no results matching. I returned to ask the driver again for clarification to make sure I had his name and date of birth correct and to make sure it was not out of Arkansas. The driver then stated his uncle was on the way up to the gas station with the insurance and registration for the vehicle. I observed the driver to be wearing a gray hoodie and a blue neck gator around his neck, inside
his hoodie pocket was a flashlight with a glass breaker on the end of it and a black and white screwdriver. I then asked who the registered owner of the vehicle was, and he gave me a name that the license plate was not registered to. I also observed the bottom of the dash under the steering wheel to be torn apart and the ignition to be pried out with no key in the ignition. I then asked dispatch to see if they could get anything on the name that the driver provided to me. Dispatch advised they could not get any information from the name the driver provided to me. I then approached the vehicle again and asked the driver to step out of the vehicle. The driver then grabbed the gear shift, slammed it into drive, and fled from the stop. I then began to pursue the fleeing vehicle onto West Fleeman Street. The vehicle then turned onto State Highway 18 westbound, reaching speeds of 130-miles per hour, traveling into the opposite lane of traffic. Trp. Josh Landreth joined in on the pursuit and took over as secondary near Monette and began to call the pursuit for me. Throughout the entirety of the pursuit the traffic was light, only passing a couple of vehicles. As we approached the Lake City Bridge, the driver lost control of his vehicle, coming into the curve in Lake City. The suspect vehicle struck the concrete curb on the southside of the roadway, losing control, and began to rotate in a clockwise manner. The suspect vehicle came to final rest in the eastbound lanes of traffic facing in a northern direction. The unidentified black male exited the vehicle and began to flee on foot south of his vehicle, behind Riverside Medical. The Craighead County Sheriff’s Department and Bono Police Department arrived on scene and a K9 track was started, but was unsuccessful. The male subject has not been located or identified at the time of this report. Although the vehicle appeared to be stolen, it has not been reported as stolen at the time of this report.
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