Driver crashes, arrested after believing he would not be pursued in Clark Co.

CLARK COUNTY, Wash. – Deputies arrested a man after leading them on a chase on Friday night because he thought he would not be stopped, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

CCSO said just before 9 p.m. Friday, a deputy saw a black SUV run a red light at Northeast St. Johns Rd. and Northeast 88th Street and attempted to stop it. The driver sped away and ran another red light. Pursuant to laws, the deputy stopped his pursuit of the SUV.

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Seconds later, the deputy saw a cloud of dust caused by a crash on NE St. Johns Rd. near the I-205 overpass. Deputies learned the driver of the SUV had tried to go between two other cars and hit a pickup truck. It sheered the driver’s side wheels off the SUV, while the pickup went through a median, across the road and hit and broke a utility pole. There were no injuries reported.

Deputies arrested the driver of the SUV, identified as 26-year-old Kostyantyn Kray of Vancouver. A passenger in the SUV said they heard police were defunded, short-staffed and would not pursue vehicles which attempted to run from traffic stops. The passenger said Kray wanted to see for himself if this was true.

People who live in this neighborhood said they were startled by what sounded like an explosion late Friday evening.

“We just heard a huge ginormous crash,” neighbor Ceri Howell said.

Neighbors in the area FOX 12 spoke with said police have been responsive whenever they’ve needed assistance.

“We used to have people dump cars and trailers and we’d call police and they’d come right away and take them and haul them away,” neighbor Georgie O’Donnell said.

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Kray was taken to a hospital before being booked into the Clark County jail for a felony charge of attempting to elude a police vehicle.

NE St. Johns Rd. was closed for over an hour due to the amount of debris in the road, to allow for tows and for maintenance on the damaged utility pole.

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