Man On The Run Touches Off A Wild Chase ‘They’re After Me,’ Shouts Man With Gun As He Jumps Into Woman’s Car And Speeds Away

Kari Eilers will never drive with her passenger door unlocked again.

Eilers, 28, was on her way home from her job as a cosmetologist at the 14th and Grand salon about 7 p.m. Thursday. As she waited at a stoplight at Fourth and Division, a man waving a gun jumped into her car through the passenger’s door.

“He told me he wanted me to drive,” Eilers said. “He said they were after him. He said they wanted to kill him. I didn’t stick around.”

Eilers jumped out of the car, and the man slid behind the wheel.

Teenagers Brian Brindle and Justin Miller were working nearby on Brindle’s broken-down Mazda.

After witnessing the car theft, Brindle armed himself with a tire iron and jumped into the back of a pickup truck that was already giving chase.

It was the beginning of a relay-race pursuit that ended in the arrest of Mark Misner, 45, of Great Falls, Mont.

Misner was being held in the Spokane County Jail on Thursday night on charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree attempted kidnapping, reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance and attempting to elude police.

Police were still trying to piece together the chain of events late Thursday.

“It’s all really kind of bizarre,” Lt. Jim Nicks said.

Brindle and Miller were installing a new axle near the corner of Fourth and Division when Brindle saw a man jump into Eiler’s Chevrolet Cavalier.

When Eiler jumped out, her car rolled forward into a truck. The man slid into the driver’s seat, backed up on Fourth and gunned the car forward.

“I grabbed a tire iron, jumped in the back of a Ford pickup and (we) chased him five blocks,” said Brindle, 17.

The pickup carrying Brindle wasn’t alone in pursuing Misner. His friend Miller, 18, gave chase with his car. Speeds hit 70 mph down Fourth Avenue.

Brindle never got a chance to wield his tire iron. A police officer pulled over the speeding pickup, and Miller stopped as well. The stolen car kept going. Reports placed it as far east as Arthur.

Then things got weird. Driving a car he had allegedly just stolen at gunpoint, Misner pulled up next to Officer Kevin Kliewer at Browne and Second and made a plea for help, Nicks said.

“They’re after me,” Misner said.

Kliewer suggested that he pull over. Instead, Misner sped off, and Kliewer followed at speeds of up to 70 mph, Nicks said.

Misner turned north on Division and waved his gun out the window several times over the Division Street Bridge, Nicks said, adding Misner also dumped out his bullets on the bridge.

At Boone and Ruby, Kliewer tried something different. He turned off his siren and turned on his loudspeaker.

“Pull over, and pull over now,” Kliewer said.

For some reason, Misner complied. He was arrested.

He’s a wiry man, with slightly graying black hair, prominent sideburns and a rodeo belt buckle featuring a horse and the year “1978.”

“I was only running from my wife,” Misner said as he slid into a police car.

At about the time authorities learned of the car theft, Misner’s wife Gladys called police from Cavanaugh’s Fourth Avenue Hotel, claiming someone had shot at her. She was also arrested after authorities found cocaine in the Misners’ own vehicle near Interstate 90 and the Garden Springs exit west of Spokane.

Police don’t know the motive for the theft of the Cavalier, a 1984 model with chipped gray paint.

“I just can’t believe that it happened,” said Eilers, who was uninjured. “It’s something you watch on ‘COPS.”’

Brindle and Miller said they were happy that Misner was caught and the car recovered. Brindle said he was also glad that he had tried to catch Misner.

“It was awesome,” Brindle said.

, DataTimes