Teenager leads deputies on high-speed chase

A teenager was charged with four felonies after taking law enforcement on a 20-minute, high-speed chase through Spokane Valley early this morning. Spokane County Deputy Craig Chamberlin said an off-duty officer called dispatch to report he had nearly been run off the road twice by a Ford Explorer on Interstate 90. Deputies used the description of the vehicle as well as the license plate to track the vehicle, which an officer discovered southbound on Argonne Road around 3 a.m. When the deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over, it took off at about 80 mph in a 35 mph zone, Chamberlin said. Deputies laid down tire spikes at one point, but the driver went onto sidewalks to avoid them. The vehicle was eventually tracked to a business parking lot near the Spokane Valley Transfer Station on North Sullivan Road. Deputies found two teenagers inside the SUV, but the driver had fled, Chamberlin said. A police dog quickly tracked the boy, who was hiding nearby. The teen was charged with four felonies: one count of eluding police, two counts of imprisonment for the two people also in the vehicle, and one count of assault for trying to run vehicles off the road, Chamberlin said. “The passengers said they asked the driver several times to stop and pull over,” Chamberlin said. Alcohol is not suspected to be a factor, the deputy said, but the teen told police he thought it “would be fun” to mess with cars on the road. The boy did have a valid driver’s license.