Valley teen arrested after Redmond chase, crash
A 17-year-old from the Marion County town of Aumsville, at the wheel of his grandparents’ pickup truck, led Redmond police on a pursuit early Wednesday morning, soon followed by a high-flying crash and later arrest officers said.
After the officer lost sight, the pickup hit a snow berm on a dead-end road, which sent it flying about 100 feet over an irrigation canal. The teen was later found, arrested and treated for minor injuries, police said.
Around 1:30 a.m., a Redmond officer tried to stop a 2013 Toyota Tacoma on Southwest Canal Boulevard near Kalama Avenue, but the driver failed to pull over and instead took off, said Lt. Curtis Chambers. The officer pursued the pickup but lost sight of it after it turned onto Timber Avenue, he said.
A few minutes later, Deschutes County dispatch got a 911 call of a crash near Southwest 27 th Street and Timber Avenue, Chambers said. The driver was not on scene when officers arrived. A Redmond K-9 team was called in to search the area, but the driver was not immediately found.
By 3 a.m., investigators identified a suspect, Chambers said. And around 5 a.m., police got a call of a suspicious person in the area of the Comfort Suites by the Redmond Airport on Southwest Yew Avenue. The teen was found and arrested, first taken to St. Charles Redmond for treatment of minor injuries, then to the county Juvenile Detention Center in Bend.
An investigation found the teen, who police did not identify, had borrowed his grandparents’ pickup, with permission – but drove it to Redmond, unbeknownst to them, Chambers said. He faces charges of felony attempt to elude in a motor vehicle, reckless driving and hit and run (failure to perform the duties of a driver in an accident).
After the officer lost sight of the pickup and was no longer pursuing it, the teen apparently kept heading west on Timber Avenue, to 26 th Street, where it ends before a Central Oregon Irrigation District canal. The pickup was totaled and towed from the scene, Chambers said.
It was the first of three police pursuits in Central Oregon in just nine hours Wednesday morning.
