UHP ends multi-state high speed chase at Utah border; STGnews Photo Gallery added

ST. GEORGE – A high speed chase originating in Nevada, proceeding through Arizona via the gorge and into Utah was terminated by Utah Highway Patrol and Arizona Department of Public Safety at milepost 6 of Interstate 15 in St. George this morning.

“We got a call from a reporting party into our dispatch center at 6:05 a.m. reporting the BMW reckless on northbound I-15,”  Trooper Jeremie Elliott with Nevada Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol Division said.  “We had a trooper just north of the location, at mile marker 109.” Elliott said that was the reason for the ATL, or attempting to locate, directive.

Elliott said the Nevada trooper clocked the black BMW going 140 mph at 6:15 a.m., and the pursuit ensued.

“Nevada Highway Patrol started the pursuit which came into Arizona,” Arizona Department of Public Safety Media Relations Manager Bart Graves said. “We tried to spike it, the vehicle kept going, went into Utah where their highway patrol stopped it.”

Utah Highway Patrol public information officer Cpl. Todd Johnson said UHP was first notified around 7:26 a.m.

The pursuit started in Nevada he said, was picked up by Arizona Department of Public Safety through the Arizona Strip and Utah Highway Patrol successfully spiked the vehicle at Utah’s milepost 2, pulling it over at milepost 6.

“At mile post 2 in Utah, UHP Troopers set up road spikes at the Exit 2 structure,” Johnson’s media release later stated. “From a position of cover, the two troopers successfully spiked all four tires on the suspect vehicle.

Arizona DPS continued to remain as primary and secondary units as the pursuit continued north into Utah, with UHP following some distance behind the two Arizona Units and providing 800 MHz communication to Cedar Dispatch and the other allied agencies that were covering all of the exits on northbound I-15.

Johnson originally said two males were reportedly taken into custody in Utah just after 8 a.m. However, on scene, St. George News reporter observed what appeared to be one male with dreadlocks and one female (Ed. Note) taken into custody. Johnson later confirmed the arrests of one male, driver Timothy Tyler Andrew Walker, 33, and one female passenger, Hann Raelle McDonald, no age specified. According to his media statement:

“At (milepost 6), all four tires had deflated on the suspect vehicle which caused the BMW to significantly slow down and eventually stop. AZDPS Officers initiated a felony stop. When the male driver of the BMW attempted to flee on foot, he was subdued by AZDPS. A UHP Trooper arrived on scene and took a female passenger into custody without incident.”

The vehicle involved was a  black BMW 750 Li with California plates. At 9:03 a.m. the BMW was loaded on a wrecker tow-truck and being removed from the scene.

A “Louis Vuitton” looking bag was removed from the vehicle, listed on paperwork by the UHP officers and put into one of the UHP trooper vehicles.

“During an inventory of the vehicle methamphetamine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and alcohol were found in the vehicle,” Johnson’s media report said. Both parties arrested were determined to be under the influence.

Johnson said they will be booked on charges in Utah and Nevada will then have them extradited. Elliott said that since they have been booked in Utah, Nevada will go through its process after Utah has completed its own. He said he is not sure if the driver has charges or warrants, as it started with the citizen alert of reckless driving and ended in Utah.

UHP is handling the investigation and charges associated with both suspects, Johnson said in his report. Arizona DPS and Nevada will follow up with charges in their own states.

(story continues below)

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery. 

Note: Persons arrested are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

St. George News photojournalist Chris Caldwell contributed to this report.

Ed. Note: One of the suspects arrested on scene was first reported as looking like Janet Jackson. The intent was to indicate the appearance of gender; it has been challenged as an inappropriate description and therefore the description is removed, and the female gender has since been confirmed.

UPDATED 11:45 a.m. per post-report provided by Utah Highway Patrol.

UPDATED 10:43 a.m. per statement of Nevada Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division.

UPDATED 10:05 a.m. per statement of Arizona Department of Public Safety.

UPDATED 9:05 a.m. per St. George News reporter on scene.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @JoyceKuzmanic

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.

Utah Highway Patrol arrest a vehicle and its occupants involved in a high speed chase originating in Nevada, crossing through the Arizona Strip and into Utah on Interstate 15 between 7:30 and 8 a.m., vehicle spiked at Utah milepost 2, and brought to a halt at milepost 6. St. George, Utah, Jan. 30, 2013 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News

 

 

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48 Comments

  • Joe January 30, 2013 at 8:53 am

    I hate it when someone spikes my tires and my truck gets all woozy and acting all stupid, thinking it can sing and dance. Stop spiking my tires.

  • DoubleTap January 30, 2013 at 9:56 am

    Do they sell furniture at the Port of Entry now?

  • mikal mahoney January 30, 2013 at 9:57 am

    haha thats my truck behind the pole! i went there after i watched it end to listen to my scanner!! and to tell the oncoming truckers what happend

  • arresting a vehicle January 30, 2013 at 10:30 am

    The vehicle was arrested?! Most times i thought they just impounded it… Be interesting to see if it shows up on the bookings page

  • Joe January 30, 2013 at 10:42 am

    Did the mayor go there and ask “Are you from Dixie?”

    • Omari January 30, 2013 at 3:38 pm

      Hahaha lmao..He wouldn’t assume they’re from dixie looking like Janet Jackson n a dude wit dreads Lol

  • A Reader January 30, 2013 at 11:05 am

    First let me say that I really appreciate an alternative news source in the Southern Utah area – please keep at it. That said, this is one of the most poorly-reported news stories I have ever seen. Each paragraph is a disaster.

    p1 – terminated is cop jargon, the tires were spiked near the Port of Entry and the chase ended near milepost 6.

    p2 – Bart Graves’ quote (2nd part) is either improperly transcribed or requires editing to make it cogent.

    p3 – “around 7:26am” – is that within a minute either way? Why not just say “at 7:26am”?

    p4 – just poorly-written

    p5 – quoting the reporter as saying she :looked like Janet Jackson?” Seriously? Either the reporter believed she was actually Janet Jackson, or he was making an ignorant and insensitive comment about her race (do all black females look like Janet Jackson? How much, really, does she resemble Janet Jackson? Is Janet Jackson a part of this story?). Just let the photos do the talking here; racial characteristics are speculative at best. Is she African-American? Maybe, but she could actually be from another country – you don’t know, and we don’t need your speculation.

    p6 – verb tense changes

    p7 – the designer is Louis Vuitton, it is a designer bag with Louis Vuitton logos, not a “Luis Vuitton” looking bag

    p8&9 – Are the UHP cars being booked and extradited? What about the DPS car in the photo, is it in trouble too?

    p10 – ??? This sounds like a joke. Of course you will update as needed.

    The captions are no better. This is not the way to report serious news stories folks. Please, please, please show some respect for language and treat the facts with care. My 8th grader would get an “F” with writing like this.

    A reader.

    • John E January 30, 2013 at 12:07 pm

      Despite the items you pointed out, it was still immediate reporting on an event, unlike the local newspaper which sometimes takes days, if ever, to report an event. I’ve notice that since St George News came into existence and provided people real news and reports on political issues,the local newspaper, which had always been lacking in those categories, has seen some improvement. Remember the days when the newspaper was nothing more than stories about religion or ‘touchy feel good’ commentaries? Never did you see anything about local politics. That seemed a taboo subject.

    • Avatar photo Joyce Kuzmanic January 30, 2013 at 12:27 pm

      I sincerely do appreciate your comments, A Reader, we do appreciate the value of a cogent report – those are doable in hindsight, this report has been issued in real time, as you can see by the multiple updates as information was obtained through several agencies.

      I do want to clarify the reasoning for including the descriptions of the suspects. The UHP officer initially said it was two males. Our reporter on scene felt sure it was a male and female, and I asked him to describe them; while we could not confirm gender with certainty, we reported in the moment our best description through our own eyewitness. Then we published photos. No racial intent was involved and we could not with certainty identify race, although it is not uncommon to report race on arrests.

      As far as approximate times, we will not give a specific time unless we are given a specific time – we were not, and the after-the-fact report from UHP still gives approximate time of first call received.

      It is not permissible to edit a direct quote to make it more cogent. AP does not permit italics, thus words that might be italicized in other styles of writing are placed in quotation marks.

      I hope this helps, we welcome your input anytime – keep us sharp.

      St. George News | STGnews.com
      Joyce Kuzmanic
      Editor-in-Chief

      • A Reader January 30, 2013 at 2:30 pm

        As I said earlier, I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE your efforts to provide an alternative news source and want you to continue. I understand that the local print newspaper is well-funded with a larger staff. And I understand that this was breaking news. But none of that means that we should accept mediocrity. Personally, I would rather wait five minutes for a proper edit, but we seem to differ on what a proper edit really is. The way you report news, grammar included, speaks to your credibility as a news source. We want credibility. If the reporter thought one of the suspects was female, simply state that one of the suspects appeared to be female. You don’t have to bring Janet Jackson into the story. Race can play into a story if it is an important factor, like if the cops are looking for someone who fits a certain description, but otherwise it is best left alone because it is often just speculation. Would you identify a suspect’s race if they were Jewish, Irish or Nordic, or is it just whites, blacks, asians and hispanics? Can you elaborate on any policies you have with regards to reporting a suspect’s race? And why wasn’t the male suspect compared to a celebrity? The quotes around “Luis Vuitton” give no attribution, and the designer’s name is Louis, not Luis (still not corrected, so why not say “Lewis Veeton” just to make it perfectly clear to those who really don’t care). Maybe most people in this town don’t care about education and credibility and are just fine with weak reporting, but I care and I would like you to do better. Apparently no one else cares enough to hold your feet to the fire. I’m begging you, please don’t make it the “St. George News for the Uneducated and Mediocre.”

        • Omari January 30, 2013 at 3:36 pm

          Maybe the male subject didn’t look like a celeb…i lmao when I saw this.. #sense of humor

    • Anonymous January 30, 2013 at 1:00 pm

      A Reader I completely agree with you. This news article was not professionally written. I have read a few stories of hers that was just flat out ridiculous. She is not a good reporter. Who honestly would put ” Who looked like Janet Jackson”? if you don’t know the race or gender of the suspect you should atleast say the identity of the suspect has not been identified. Not Happy with her article.

      • ladybugavenger January 30, 2013 at 1:29 pm

        There is no doubt that whoever wrote the article did not proofread it…At least I hope they didn’t. I once had an officer tell me that my car had a warrant…I laughed and said, “What did my car do?” and I looked at my car and said,” what did you do while I was sleeping.” So I understand everything you all are pointing out. A car can’t be arrested or have a warrant. And maybe this journalist will learn from this article. However, put grammar aside, the article answered the questions that I had…I saw the police lights and the on ramp closed and the article, even in it’s raw form, answered the Why?

        • Avatar photo Joyce Kuzmanic January 30, 2013 at 1:33 pm

          No mistake, the choice of “arrest” as a verb meaning “to stop” was intentional, serving dual purpose with its meaning “to seize or take into custody.” Economy of words. 🙂

          • ladybugavenger January 30, 2013 at 2:06 pm

            Dang, I knew I should have paid attention to Bill O’ Reilly and his words of the day. I’m stuck 🙂

            Thank you for that explanation. I still think that you all did a good job reporting this incident this morning. I’m still waiting for their mugshot…

            (My comment about the officer saying my car has a warrant. He really did say that but neither my car or I had a warrant…I’m just clearing that up.) (There was no warrant for such behavior from an officer)

          • Avatar photo Joyce Kuzmanic January 30, 2013 at 2:10 pm

            🙂 back atcha ladybug avenger.

  • Zeke January 30, 2013 at 11:35 am

    The Spectrum says that two adult “males” were arrested. So who is right? Two males, or one male and a Janet Jackson look a-like? Stay tuned…………..

    • Avatar photo Joyce Kuzmanic January 30, 2013 at 11:58 am

      Thank you for asking, Zeke.
      We’ve been following and updating this developing story all morning, as you can see.
      The answer is that two arrests were made, one male, one female. Initial statement to us by UHP was also two males, but our reporter was on scene, thus we included the description as he witnessed the arrest and saw what appeared to be one male, one female. Please also see the photos.
      In our update at 11:45 a.m. we included that the UHP officer has now confirmed the arrested parties as one male, one female, with names.
      Hope that helps?
      St. George News | STGnews.com
      Joyce Kuzmanic
      Editor-in-Chief

  • Maggie January 30, 2013 at 11:57 am

    I am betting drugs are involved! Pretty much some of the other comments on this site.

  • DoubleTap January 30, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    To “A Reader”: With such command of the english language and verbage, and all the proper corrections to the report, have you considered becoming a reporter yourself for either The STGnews or the other local news affiliate source? I’m sure that wither organization would appreciate all your proper writing skills. Sheesh…..

  • Omari January 30, 2013 at 12:09 pm

    Janet Jackson WAS IN THE CAR?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • ladybugavenger January 30, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    I was taking my daughter to work this morning and I saw the I-15 freeway on ramp blocked off and the lights of many police cars and I wanted to know what happened….I looked online and I thank you that I was able to find news about it, and I continue to look for their mugshots and updates of the story. Someone pointed out grammar and spelling and you know you saw the post too…Well, I would like to point out that I am grateful for knowing what happened on the Freeway and why the on ramp was closed and why there were so many officers there. Thank you for being at the scene and reporting on it!!!

  • Mean momma January 30, 2013 at 1:41 pm

    When I saw the comment about the female suspect looking like Janet Jackson, I seriously could not believe a reporter would actually say that! Sounds like something a bystander might say during a news interview when asked to describe the suspect, but certainly not a professional reporter! You have got to be kidding me!

    • Joe January 30, 2013 at 2:02 pm

      Maybe that’s the reason for all the UHP patrol cars, all thinking they’d see another Janet wardrobe malfunction. “Okay, boys, now which one of us gets to frisk her?”

      • DoubleTap January 30, 2013 at 2:31 pm

        Hahahahaha…good one Joe

  • Professional Idiot January 30, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    Cool, didn’t know Furniture Row on the border…So can we get some service stations south of Bluff Exit to sell lottery tickets??! 🙂

  • Chardell January 30, 2013 at 7:39 pm

    The spike strips were set out at the border but the car was able to make it to the furniture row before it was disabled.

  • Anon January 30, 2013 at 8:04 pm

    Taken from Wikipedia, “Walker was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR on May 18, 2007 for violation of the substance abuse policy.” Guess that’s why he couldn’t (thankfully) out run the police, he is out of practice, and still using drugs.

    • Chris January 31, 2013 at 5:44 pm

      He is not out of practice. He’s been racing sprint cars for years. He just raced at the chili bowl in a midget three weeks ago. How often do you see car chases last three states. But he’s had a drug problem forever. This is just last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwRNFcM7BTI (explicit language warning) He’s had an attitude problem for a while, and now his racing career is over.

    • Aharble February 2, 2013 at 8:33 pm

      I don’t think anybody has the right to judge Tyler unless you know enought about him personally to know everything he gone threw he may need help yes but nobody wants to give him credit for the amount of talent he has in a race car

  • Stamp January 31, 2013 at 7:19 am

    Read this story and noted it was written on the fly with updates.

    Geez louise lets not get wound up about grammar, Gannet isnt charging you a buck to read their wrong information.

    That said I want to follow this news source more, would like to see more on the Jeremy Johnson / Swallow / Reid fiasco tho as that is going National as reported in Huffpo, Foxnews, etc, along with about every other Utah paper.

  • Tom January 31, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    Saw her photo in the Spectrum. Darn, she DOES look like Janet Jackson. Good reporting.

  • ladybugavenger January 31, 2013 at 3:26 pm

    I saw these two at WalMart today…I was like,,,,oh my gosh that’s them.

  • CamieDawg January 31, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    I’ve noticed, over my seven years of living here in Utah’s Dixie, there is a preponderance of highly accredited
    individuals who are more than eager to critique any manner of subjects; such as “A READER” did in his/her
    critique of the writing skill put forth in this article. I does leave me to wonder; what exceptional literary endeavors has “A READER” put to the public eye in the past or in the present? Now I’ll admit, I don’t really
    know if “A READER” is a highly accredited individual or not, but he/she certainly wants to be viewed as one.

    As for myself, being a “functional illiterate”, I’m quite satisfied with the report of this incident, as I’m just barely capable of dealing with the complexities of the the English lexicon, grammar and punctuation “niceities”. I’m sure “A READER” will be more than willing to help me with my difficulties of such.

    thanx for the report, ……….”CamieDawg”

    • A Reader February 1, 2013 at 1:08 am

      Hmmm… my accreditation? How about a high school diploma? And yes there is a preponderance of high school graduates around here these days getting all critical with the schnizzle. Look, the story has been cleaned up quite a bit since my first criticism, and I appreciate the effort that the St. George News took to make it more presentable. My comments were earnest and I hope that my criticism was helpful, and not just derogatory, hurtful bashing. I suppose I should just shut up and let people like you be satisfied with it. As I have said in each of my comments, I really appreciate the St. George News and the work they are doing. This community needs another local news source, and I do support them. It is not bad to urge them to present a better product, and I don’t see why people here seem to be so willing to accept low standards. Why not aim for excellence? On another note, I am a little disappointed that there is no followup on the juicy “race car driver” angle of the story…….

      • CamieDawg February 1, 2013 at 11:00 am

        “A READER”, ……thank you for your reply. You are certainly within your rights to make
        critiques and comments on anything, written or spoken. I also agree that we should hold the
        media to the highest standards possible. I just wonder if your critique of this article, no matter how correct you might be, would have been better served by a direct contact to the author, instead of the public view. You would have to admit it made you come across as
        being rather arrogant and condescending. I assume your only reason was to ask for a more quality product and that’s great. Just consider a different way of asking in the future.

        Respectively, ………Lawrence Felix (a one time aka of “CamieDawg”)

  • Dan Lester January 31, 2013 at 10:19 pm

    Personally, I never put a lot of value, even when the writer is correct, in comments made by various “cute anonymous names” like “a reader”, “professional idiot”, “mean mama”, and “ladybugavenger”. Why is it that people don’t have the ovaries or testicles to use their own name? (I hope that was politically correct enough).

    I’m always proud enough, or brave enough, to sign my own real name.

    • CamieDawg February 1, 2013 at 10:44 am

      To Dan Lester: I completely agree with you in your opinion of “cute-zee” anonymous names and this
      was the first time I’ve used one. “CamieDawg” was a “handle” I chose specifically because the article writer,
      Joyce Kuzmanic, knows exactly who the Camie Dog’s owner is and I thought it might give her a laugh.

      I’ve always used my real name in making comments here or to the SPECTRUM. The unfortunate experience
      I’ve had with the SPECTRUM, is when I’ve read their rendition of my comment, I couldn’t recognize it as being my entry. At least the StGeoNews comments are left as is, errors and all.

      I appreciate your opinion and I noticed you didn’t mention my “CamieDawg” handle, for whatever reason.

      Respectively, ………Lawrence Felix

      • Dan Lester February 1, 2013 at 12:20 pm

        I didn’t mention “Camie Dawg” because I just scanned and picked out a few that struck me. Had I noticed it in my quick scan. Cheers.

  • Craig February 1, 2013 at 5:54 am

    To to YouTube.com and look up
    Tyler walker

  • Johnny February 1, 2013 at 10:50 am

    I guess they don’t teach you how to avoid spike strips in NASCAR! They should add that element to future races.

  • Dan Lester February 1, 2013 at 12:23 pm

    Tyler Walker, the driver of this car, was permanently suspended by NASCAR in 2007 for violating the drug abuse policy. He obviously has continued with his drug abuse. For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Walker_(racing_driver)

  • Pondering February 1, 2013 at 12:42 pm

    Southern Utahn’s can again jump for joy that they have news media worth criticizing ! From the early years of having a local paper, there have always been extremely intelligent people who loved to dissect the Spectrum Articles. Which led to creation of many local nicknames for the paper, which I probably shouldn’t print here, and the infamous bumper sticker, ” THE SPECTRUM, I RAED IT”. Let’s not forget, the “Vent”, which was the most effective way to spread discontent and animosity, in a small town, that I have ever witnessed.

    I would suggest we cut St.George Utah.com a little slack, during the introductory period. Now that they know that a lot of very smart people are reading their articles, I’m sure they will try harder. You can expect the first person at the scene, or the first draft of an article to be full of mistakes in all sorts of forms. It’s the editor’s job to refine and correct their work before it goes to print. Some editors choose to retain some of the “local flavor” by not correcting every little thing. We are not New York, or Salt Lake City, why should our paper’s articles have to sound like a college essay? However, can we strike a balance between reporting with accuracy and personality, while not insulting our intelligence?

    I agree wth “Stamp”, I would love to see an in depth series, starting from the very beginning, regarding the above topic (not about the car being arrested). I think the situation has been covered from almost every angle.

    Keep on keeping on, you have taken on a very difficult position that will require a sense of humor and a thick skin, and digging deeper to bring out the potential of every employee you have there. Best Wishes!

  • Dan Lester February 1, 2013 at 1:09 pm

    Gee, I feel left out. A later comment has been approved by mine with more information about the driver of the car that was stopped has not been. 🙂

    One more question. If they were arrested by local authorities, why haven’t they been shown on the Arrests page stocked with data from the folks at Purgatory. The word was that they were held here but would eventually be extradited after Utah handled them. Just curious.

  • ken February 1, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    Dan either you haven’t looked at the bookings page or you don’t know how to scroll down. No matter which it is they are both looking pathetic on the WCSO booking page!

  • Dan Lester February 1, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Ken, you are correct, they are there now. I’m not the only one who did not find them. In fact, it was a subject of discussion among more than one reader off line.

    What I NOW find interesting is that it shows their bond has been paid. Does that mean they’re literally running free, or that it means they were turned over to another agency, presumably Arizona or Nevada, and that there wasn’t really a bond paid to let them out?

  • Harvelyn Christensen March 4, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    Man they really did get quite a ways into Utah.

    • Zeke March 4, 2013 at 3:15 pm

      Yea man, they like really did get far man

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