Deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Department were involved in pursuit late this morning south of Atlantic. Cass County Chief Deputy Sheriff John Westering told KJAN News there no injuries were reported, but the lives of the public were in jeopardy. He said the incident began sometime after 11-a.m., when the Cass County Communications Center reported a resident at Willow Heights Residential Care Facility had taken off in a vehicle and was traveling south from facility on a gravel road. Cass County Deputy Corey Larsen was able to locate and follow the subject and made several attempts to get him to stop. Westering said chase became a “Huge public safety concern,” when the subject of the pursuit allegedly began to try and run other motorists off the road. He says the subject was stopped at one point when contact was made between a squad car and the stolen vehicle, but the chase didn’t end until the subject lost control of the vehicle on Highway 71, just south of Newport Road, where the vehicle went into a ditch. He was then taken into custody. No injuries were reported, and the vehicles involved sustained only minor damage. Westering said the incident ended “About as good as it could for the way it was looking there for a while.”)

Westering’s cruiser sustained some minor front end damage during the pursuit. He said the suspect had spun-out, and Westering tried to box him in, but didn’t want to disable his cruiser. The subject managed to get the vehicle he was driving going again, but lost control on Highway 71 and spun out on the road. Westering moved his vehicle into position to pin the driver’s side door shut to keep the subject from getting away, and to keep the vehicle from taking off again, because speeds during the chase were in excess of 80 miles per hour into oncoming traffic. The subject lost control when Westering placed his cruiser in front of the other vehicle and the subject attempted to make evasive maneuvers.

(12-p.m. News)