A Graham County Sheriff’s deputy working radar on 20th Avenue Monday night at approximately 11:00 pm clocked a southbound white SUV traveling 62 miles per hour in a 35 mile-an-hour zone. The vehicle passed the deputy with its lights off. The deputy believed the driver was trying to make it hard to see them.
The deputy pursued the vehicle with his emergency lights activated but the vehicle did not yield and apparently increased speed. The vehicle turned its lights back on around Golf Course Road and continued at a high rate of speed. The deputy called for assistance because the vehicle appeared to be trying to evade him. The vehicle continued on Golf Course Road to Discovery Park Blvd, eventually turning onto a dirt road toward Freeman Flats.
The SUV finally pulled over onto the shoulder and the deputy ordered the driver out of the car and had him place his hands up and walk backward toward the deputy. He was placed in handcuffs and identified as a 16-year-old by his driver’s license. He told the deputy that somebody in a Nissan truck had pulled a gun on him in front of Safeway.
Another officer ordered the passenger out the vehicle and placed him in handcuffs. The teen’s mother came to the scene to pick him up.
The driver said that he did not see the deputy pursuing him until he went into the dirt south of Discovery Park Blvd at which time he pulled over. He claimed that he did not know how fast he was driving. He said that he turned his headlights off because he was afraid the person who allegedly pulled a gun on him might be following him.
The teen driver was released to the custody of his mother, pending a juvenile referral.
