Wild ride: Suspected drunken driver drives through yards, rams squad cars

By Hillary Mintz

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    NEW BERLIN, Wisconsin (WISN) — Early Wednesday morning, police said a suspected drunken driver, who was also wanted on felony gun charges, took officers on a wild ride.

“He tried to evade police by going into several yards, backyards, front yards,” New Berlin police Capt. Tony Pine said.

Dash camera video from Muskego police shows officers as they followed the driver off-road after the driver took off from a traffic stop near Calhoun and Beloit roads.

At one point, the 45-year-old driver led officers up a sledding hill in Park Arthur. Police said he rammed into two New Berlin squad cars while trying to outrun the officers.

“He puts it in reverse and rams one of our squads, and then there’s another yard down the road where he attempts the same thing and does significant damage to that squad,” Pine said.

After more twists and turns, the driver crashed into a pond.

“He winds up turning his lights off in the park, and at some point, he doesn’t see the pond and drives into the pond, and that’s when the pursuit comes to an end, and our officers are able to safely take him into custody,” Pine said.

“How dangerous was this pursuit? He’s driving in and out of yards, hitting police cars?” WISN 12 News reporter Hillary Mintz said.

“He definitely wanted to get away, whether he was intoxicated or impaired probably played a lot in his decision making,” Pine said.

Now, the wanted man from Milwaukee is likely to face more criminal charges this time in Waukesha County. Police said he wasn’t the owner of the vehicle, but it also wasn’t reported stolen, so they’re still trying to figure out how he wound up in the car.

The officers are OK.

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