Escapee chased, caught
A man being sought for escape from community custody led Spokane County sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase Tuesday morning that ended when he crashed into three parked vehicles near the intersection of Day-Mount Spokane Road and U.S. Highway 2.
Christopher Williams, 29, was flown by MedStar helicopter to Deaconess Medical Center to be treated for injuries suffered in the 9:11 a.m. crash, said Kevin Kilgore, senior inspector with the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Spokane.
“We are just obviously lucky that no one else got hurt,” Kilgore said. “It’s unfortunate that someone would go to those measures to avoid being arrested.”
Williams had been in community custody with the state Department of Correction following a previous conviction for unlawful imprisonment, Kilgore said. He escaped from community custody on Aug. 21 and then fled on foot Aug. 22 when authorities tried to arrest him on the escape warrant.
Then on Tuesday about 8:30 a.m., members of the Eastern Washington Fugitive Task Force set up surveillance at a Spokane Valley residence that they learned Williams might be frequenting, Kilgore said.
Williams was driving toward that location in a 1998 Chevy Tahoe when he apparently realized he was being followed. He took off, eventually ending up on state Highway 206 where pursuers lost him in the area of Willow Road, Kilgore said.
Sheriff’s deputies then set up a several-mile wide perimeter. A deputy later spotted Kilgore driving south on U.S. 2 near the intersection with Elk-Chattaroy Road.
“The pursuit continued in excess of 100 mph,” Kilgore said. Smith “was driving southbound in the northbound lanes of traffic.”
Traffic became too heavy to continue the chase, so deputies broke off the pursuit. However, a deputy had already deployed spike strips at U.S. 2 and Day-Mount Spokane Road. When Smith approached, he swerved to avoid the strips and crashed into an unoccupied parked Chevy Blazer, knocking it back 40 or 50 feet. Two other vehicles were also damaged, Kilgore said.
Williams suffered a substantial injury to his hand which required surgery. He was later released from Deaconess Medical Center, but he now faces the new felony charges of eluding arrest and possibly reckless endangerment, Kilgore said.