Dateline: May 6, 2004

Shoving match ends high-speed chase

By Ashlee Kidd, Clarendon Enterprise

A high-speed chase Saturday night landed a California man in the Donley County Jail facing charges of evading arrest and aggravated assault on a peace officer.

David Allen Myer, 35, of Glendora, California, was taken into custody after he led law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase exceeding 100 miles per hour through Armstrong and Donley Counties.

“At approximately 10:20 p.m., the Donley County Sheriff’s Department received a call that a dark Chevrolet Camaro was headed east on US Hwy. 287 traveling at excessive speeds,” Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said. “DPS Trooper Lynn Mays had clocked the vehicle speeding west of Claude and chased it through Claude.”

Mays and two units from the Armstrong County Sheriff’s Department then continued in pursuit of the vehicle east of Claude on Hwy. 287.

DPS Trooper Chris Ward spiked the vehicle one half mile west of the Armstrong/Donley County line, but the suspect was able to continue driving.

The pursuit then continued east, and DPS Sergeant Richard Gribble spiked the vehicle a second time one half mile west of Ashtola, but that also failed to stop the suspect.

“Spiking the vehicle only slowed him down to about 80 miles per hour,” Blackburn said.

“The vehicle made aggressive moves towards Donley County police units and was finally brought to a stop five miles west of town after I nudged him with my pickup,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn said that the officers and troopers from the two counties worked well together.

“It worked smooth, and it comes in handy to have vehicles like my pickup that are heavy enough to shove another vehicle without causing any damage.”

According to Blackburn, the officers involved in this chase were determined to stop the suspect before he reached Clarendon.

“We have a policy that we weren’t going to chase him through town,” he said. “It would have put too many lives on the line.”

Myer was arraigned by Donley County Judge Jack Hall on Monday, and bond was set at $75,000 for aggravated assault on a peace officer and $25,000 for evading arrest.

At press time, law enforcement officials say it is undetermined whether the use of alcohol or narcotics was involved in the case.