Northeast Bend pursuit leads to driver’s arrest

A Deschutes County sheriff’s deputy pursued a car after its driver ran a stop sign and refused to pull over in northeast Bend Wednesday evening. The brief pursuit ended in the St. Charles Bend parking lot, where the male driver and a female companion abandoned the car and ran north. Police soon arrested the driver near Mountain View High School.

The deputy spotted a silver passenger car run a stop sign around 6:15 p.m. at the intersection of Paula Drive and Williamson Boulevard, said Sgt. Jayson Janes.

Janes said the deputy turned around and tried to stop the car, using his siren, but the driver of the Ford Taurus, later identified as Kenneth Lee Eyle, 20, of Bend, sped away.

The pursuit was discontinued when the car entered the St. Charles parking lot. But less than a minute later, the deputy found the car abandoned in a parking lot near the north end of the hospital, Janes said.

Witnesses told police they saw a man and woman running north from the car.

Bend police officers found a man and woman in the area of Jackson Avenue and Moonlight Drive that matched the pair’s description.

An investigation determined Eyle was the car’s driver, and he was taken into custody without incident. The female passenger was questioned at the scene and released, Janes said.

Eyle was booked into the county jail on charges of felony attempt to elude police and reckless driving. He was held on $15,000 bail.