Spirit Lake Man Faces 6 Felonies In Hot Pickup Chase, Deputies Say

A 27-year-old Spirit Lake man faces six felony charges after allegedly leading police on a wild chase across oncoming freeway traffic in a stolen pickup.

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies arrested David Joe Holland late Monday after finding him curled up in a stairwell behind a Post Falls house.

Deputies began chasing a stolen 1997 Dodge Ram 250 pickup when it drove through a ditch at a truck stop on Seltice Way and followed it onto Highway 41. Speeds reached 85 mph.

An Idaho State Police trooper joined the chase when the truck got on Interstate 90 westbound. The pickup then drove through the grass median and crossed both eastbound freeway lanes, forcing two on-coming trucks to brake to avoid a head-on collision.

The truck continued down the embankment along the freeway, plowed through a chain-link fence and across Seltice Way into the Dairy Queen parking lot. Police, who used the freeway off-ramp, watched as the truck drove over the restaurant’s lawn, jumped the railroad tracks and speed away through a field.

Post Falls police officers found the truck abandoned near the intersection of Maplewood Street and Ridgewood Drive. A pipe and small amount of methamphetamine were found inside, a sheriff’s report said.

A sheriff’s dog tracked the driver to a home on Ross Point Road, the report said. The dog bit Holland on the head, arm and leg when he disobeyed deputies commands and began fighting the dog, the report said.

Holland was treated at Kootenai Medical Center before being booked into jail. He faces felony charges of burglary, possession of a stolen vehicle, eluding police, possession of a controlled substance and two counts of grand theft. He also faces two misdemeanor counts of driving with a suspended license.

, DataTimes