High speed chase ends in crash at Hazel Dell church - KPTV - FOX 12
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A church in Hazel Dell is facing some pricey repairs after a high-speed police chase came to an end right in front of the building.
It happened just before noon Saturday at Heritage Church along Northeast Hazel Dell Avenue.
Luckily no one was hurt, but two women who were almost hit by the suspect's vehicle are shaken up.
Witnesses told FOX 12 that the car was going about 80 mph when it rear-ended a truck, took out some mailboxes and crashed into the church's solid metal sign on the side of the road.
Neighbors say it sounded like an explosion.
"It certainly increased my heart rate," Leota Collier, an elderly woman who lives right across the street, said.
She was waxing her car in her garage when she heard the noise.
"I heard what sounded like a gunshot and I flattened myself on the garage floor," she said.
After she picked herself up off the floor, she looked outside and saw a smashed up red Madza in the front lawn of the church right across the street.
"My heart went back into normal pace. I really thought my house had been hit when I heard the glass breaking. I wish you could have that sound duplicated because it was like nothing I had heard before," Collier said.
Witnesses said the driver took off running after the crash but police gave chase and arrested the man not too far away from the car.
"This red car from what I understand was going about 80 miles per hour down this road being chased," said Pastor Bryan Davenport.
The car demolished the church's sign along the street and Davenport said the driver almost hit two women who were leaving the church.
"If it did that to the sign, imagine what it could have done to those gals," said Davenport.
Davenport is hoping insurance will cover the sign, which cost $22,000. He's just thankful that no one was hurt.
"I can't imagine at the end of the day that it was worth it for him to try and evade arrest and have this be the consequence, let alone possibly putting people's lives at risk," said Davenport.
Washington State Troopers said the driver was arrested on charges of DUII, felony eluding, hit-and-run, driving with a suspended license and reckless engenderment.
Investigators said the driver, whose name has not been released, led officers on the chase after they tried to pull him over for a traffic violation.
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