Local Sheriff Dept. In Car Chase

Just before 3:30 AM today a Toole County deputy discovered someone sleeping in a mini-van on Fifth Street South. The van had been reported stolen from Hill County, Havre, MT. When the deputy approached the car the woman inside started the car and took off. The deputy pursued her with lights and siren toward the prison and then onto the frontage road of I-15 heading toward Town Pump. The woman was then described as a white adult with blonde hair. She kept a steady pace of 20 mph but was weaving all over the road and would not stop. The woman then headed toward downtown still weaving at about 30 mph. The deputy called for backup and soon another deputy responded with "stop sticks" to blow out the van's tires. About this same time a third deputy's car was nearly hit when he tried to block the van. After placing some stop sticks near Albertsons and blocking Fifth Avenue one tire was successfully blown out. Soon the Under Sheriff joined the chase. During this time, the woman continued to drive in-spite of the now disintegrating tire on the front passenger side. Next the deputy with the stop sticks was able to get ahead and blow out another passenger side tire on the back and near the Elks Club building. This still had no effect and the van driver turned around on Galena Street and headed back west. Now with four patrol cars following the van headed out of town toward Cut Bank. At this time, more stop sticks were placed after the deputy got ahead of her and a third tire was destroyed. By this time the driver was going on: one tire; two metal rims and a blown tire. The driver did not go far when she turned around and headed back to town nearly being hit by an oncoming Semi-truck. Once again, she turned to elude the deputies. This time going south on the north bound lane of the I-15 freeway. Maybe realizing that she was in the wrong lanes or just to evade capture, the van driver spun around and headed back to Shelby. It was around this time that the fourth tire was blown out. Now driving on fiery rims she still would not stop. The original deputy called for the fire department to respond. Finally, after one last try at escape, the deputies were able to surround her just behind the Dixie Inn restaurant where she crashed into one patrol car blocking the way. The driver was then taken into custody and the van impounded. All involved did an excellent job of team work bringing this to an end.

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