Tumalo-to-Bend chase ends in crash, 2 arrests

Two men were arrested at gunpoint Sunday night after their SUV led police on a chase from Tumalo into Bend, crashing into a rock wall at a northeast Bend intersection, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched around 8:45 p.m. to the Tumalo Store at 64683 Cook Avenue on a report of suspicious circumstances, said sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Dizney.

The report said people in two cars were seen meeting in the parking lot, prompting concern a crime was being planned, especially “in light of a recent burglary … at the store in which a suspect attempted to take an ATM machine and (took) a large number of cigarettes,” Dizney wrote in a news release.

Deputies arrived on scene as the dark 2005 Jeep Cherokee and gold Dodge pickup were leaving, Dizney said.

The pickup was not found, he said, but a deputy found the Cherokee driving back toward Bend on Highway 20.

The deputy tried to pull it over for a traffic violation, and to follow up on the Tumalo activity, but the driver, later identified as Jeffrey Scott Magnus, 29, refused to yield and led the deputy on a pursuit into Bend.

The chase lasted for only about three minutes, Dizney said, and remained on city streets, hitting 60 mph for a short distance but mostly at 35 to 40 mph in light traffic.

The pursuit on Third Street, Olney Avenue then 10 th Street ended when the driver tried to turn east on Franklin Avenue at NE 10 th Street, Dizney said. He failed to negotiate the turn (after not stopping for the stop sign) and struck a rock wall on the southeast corner of the intersection.

Two people were seen trying to get out the passenger-side door, he said, and were taken into custody by pursuing deputies and officers.

One suspect received minor injuries in the crash and was treated by Bend fire medics before being taken to the county jail.

A search of the Jeep turned up a small amount of suspected methamphetamine.

Scott was jailed on charges of attempting to elude a police officer, reckless driving, reckless endangering, drug possession and an arrest warrant for parole violation. He was held without bail on the latter charge.

The passenger, Cyle A. Stewart, 26, of Bend, faces a drug possession charge.

The sheriff’s office was assisted in the pursuit by Bend police and Oregon State Police, Dizney said.