A car being chased on Interstate 75, at speeds over 120 mph, eluded law enforcement north of Bowling Green – after spike strips placed by the Ohio State Patrol took out Findlay Police vehicles rather than the car being chased.
Sunday at 12:14 a.m., a Findlay police officer stopped a Chrysler 300 for running a stop sign in that city. When the officer got out of his cruiser and began walking toward the Chrysler, the driver took off, according to the Findlay Police Department. The officer pursued the vehicle, which was traveling at 80 mph within the city and then turned onto northbound I-75.
On the interstate, the Chrysler was traveling at 100 to 122 mph, according to Findlay police.
Bowling Green Police Division was notified of the chase, and a decision was made that BG officers would focus on traffic control if the car got off at Wooster Street – especially since Bowling Green streets in the downtown area are quite busy at that time of the night.
According to BGPD Lt. Dan Mancuso, the decision was made to let Findlay police and the state patrol handle the chase, and BGPD would position cruisers along Wooster and Main streets to keep motorists and pedestrians safe.
“We wanted to try to keep pedestrians out of the highway,” Mancuso said.
However, just south of Bowling Green on I-75, when the state patrol put out stop strips, the driver leading the chase managed to avoid them, Mancuso said.
But the Findlay police cruisers did not. The stop strips puncture tires and create big holes, so the cruisers were disabled, Mancuso said.
The suspect exited I-75 and headed west on Wooster Street and then north on Main Street.
However, BGPD was unaware that Findlay police and state troopers were no longer in pursuit.
The vehicle was last seen by officers on North Main Street near Poe Road. The driver has not been located as of this morning, Mancuso said.
Police believe the car was driven by a male with a male passenger. The investigation is ongoing.
