Bend bank robbery suspect arrested after N. Calif. chase
A McMinnville man wanted in connection with Friday’s robbery of the Umpqua Bank in southern Bend was arrested hours later after a chase from Southern Oregon into Northern California ended in a crash of his car, its tires shredded by spike strips, authorities said Saturday.
Oregon State Police had pursued the car before the suspect, Cory Dwight Homestead, 40, crossed into California, officials said.
Modoc County, California, Sheriff William “Tex” Dowdy said his office got a call from a Lake County, Oregon, sheriff’s deputy around 3:30 p.m. Friday — less than four hours after the Bend holdup of the Umpqua Bank on South Highway 97 — seeking help with a vehicle pursuit coming into Modoc County from Lakeview.
California Highway Patrol Lt. Danny Koetsier said Homestead was driving a red 2005 Mercedes C-55. He said there was no indication it had been stolen.
Oregon State Police pursued the driver into California until a CHP unit could take over, Koetsier said. CHP was the lead agency of the pursuit and arrest, assisted by the Modoc and Lassen counties’ sheriff’s offices.
Modoc County deputies and CHP units from Alturas took over the pursuit south of Davis Creek, reaching speeds of more than 100 mph during their hourlong, 70-mile pursuit, Dowdy said. Spike strips were deployed to slow or stop the car about 10 miles north of Alturas, Koetsier said.
The chase ended near the town of Bieber, south of state Route 299, when Homestead’s car, which had been on its rims for several miles, veered off the road and overturned into a field. That happened about 230 miles, or four hours south of Bend.
The CHP spokesman said Homestead was taken to Modoc Medical Center in Alturas for treatment of minor injuries, then brought to the Modoc County Jail. The sheriff said he was booked on initial charges of felony evading and a federal warrant for an earlier weapons violation.
Dowdy told NewsChannel 21 on Saturday he believes all four tires on the car were down to their rims by the time it crashed, and yet Homestead still “traveled quite a ways.”
“At times he was down to 35 mph. We just didn’t have a good opportunity or resources to get him stopped,” Dowdy said.
A CHP helicopter also followed the car as part of the pursuit.
After the car crashed and landed on its top, “it took a lot of work to get him out of the vehicle,” the sheriff said — but not due to damage to the Mercedes.
“He refused to get out. That took the majority of the time after the crash,” Dowdy said.
Homestead was under the influence of drugs, believed to be methamphetamine, at the time of his arrest, the sheriff added.
Homestead was one of three men arrested in 2008 in a shooting spree that closed Highway 99 near McMinnville for more than seven hours and left a man seriously wounded, police said at the time.
Court records show Homestead, then listed as living in Nyssa, Oregon, was convicted on a felony conspiracy charge in early 2009 and was sentenced to four years in prison. Several other charges – attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault – were dismissed.
