Car chase that starts in Airway Heights ends in Spokane River

A car chase that began in Airway Heights last weekend led to a man leaping into the Spokane River in an attempt to hide from police.

On Friday, Aug. 9 at 4:28 a.m., Airway Heights police attempted to pull over a black Volkswagen four-door sedan with no plates on Highway 2 near Garfield Road as part of a routine traffic stop, Sgt. Robert Swan with the Airway Heights Police Department said.

The vehicle refused to stop and traveled east on Highway 2 at excessive speeds. Near Deer Heights Road, other officers laid down spike strips, which punctured at least two tires of the fleeing vehicle. The car did not stop and continued eastbound on Interstate 90, where it lost a tire.

The vehicle then entered the city of Spokane, Swan said, where it drove through a construction site and broke through a fence. The car traveled the wrong way down 2nd and 3rd avenues “dragging a fence” and hitting the front of popular nightclub The Globe Bar and Kitchen, damaging its doors.

The car continued down Division Street and lost a wheel before stopping on the Division Street Bridge, at which point the driver exited the vehicle.

“He (the driver) left his girlfriend in the vehicle; she was nine months pregnant,” Swan said.

The man jumped off the bridge, where investigators believe he landed on a concrete surface that shattered his heel, and swam across the Spokane River, attempting to hide in some bushes and under rocks along the riverbank.

The Airway Heights Police Department was assisted by officers from the city of Spokane and Spokane County and used a drone and K9 units during parts of the pursuit and investigation, Swan said.

After just over an hour, the suspect was located cold and injured, but alive.

He was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center to receive treatment for his injuries. His girlfriend was also taken to the hospital after experiencing stomach pains.

The suspect had an active Department of Corrections warrant for activities out of state. Multiple Spokane County agencies had encountered the suspect in the past for various reasons, Swan said. The man is also a suspect in a residential burglary and subsequent car chase in Spokane Valley last week, but eluded police at that time.

Airway Heights officers booked the man into the Spokane County Jail on charges of eluding, driving without a license, resisting arrest, hit and run property damage and reckless endangerment of his girlfriend.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].