Vehicle chase ends in Cheney

An 18-year-old Centralia man suspected of stealing a Montana National Guard recruiter’s car from Missoula led Spokane County deputies on a pursuit Thursday morning that started near Spokane and ended in Cheney, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Joshua D. Winkler then ran into the woods, where a deputy with a dog tracked him down, police said. As a result of the pursuit, Cheney officials briefly locked down all their schools.

The incident started just before 7 a.m. when Spokane County sheriff’s Detective Lyle Johnston saw the recruiter’s car pass him driving about 90 mph on Interstate 90. The detective noticed the driver was unshaven and had mid-length hair, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said.

“He didn’t look like the type of person to be driving a car with U.S. government plates,” Reagan quoted Johnston as saying.

Johnston called for backup and tried to make a traffic stop using emergency lights and a siren, but the driver increased his speed. The driver traveled up Sunset Hill and west before taking the Cheney offramp and heading into town.

Units from Medical Lake, Airway Heights, Cheney, Eastern Washington University, the Washington State Patrol and the Sheriff’s Office converged on the area. The driver bailed out of the stolen car and ran into the woods as officers set up a containment area, Reagan said.

Cheney police Cmdr. Rick Campbell said the search was conducted within about three blocks of Cheney Middle School.

“Because we had a felon at large, we decided to lock down the school. Then we locked them all down,” Campbell said.

Students had just begun arriving on bus, and the lockdown only lasted about 15 minutes. It ended as soon as the suspect was in custody, Campbell said.

Winkler was arrested on charges of possession of stolen property and attempting to elude a police vehicle, Reagan said.

During questioning, Winkler told investigators that he stole the recruiter’s car so he could drive overnight to his Western Washington home, Reagan said.