A high-speed
pursuit which began in Union Township early this morning ended in the City
of Valparaiso after the suspect crashed his vehicle, the Porter County
Sheriff’s Police said.
According to
police, at 12:50 a.m. PCSP Officer Chad Crosby was patrolling Ind. 130 in
the Wheeler area when he clocked a 2014 Nissan Maxima traveling at 76 miles
per hour in a zone posted at 35 mph.
Crosby, in his
fully marked squad car, attempted to executive a traffic stop but the
driver--subsequently identifed as Maxie Rallings Jr., 47, of Gary--instead
accelerated and continued into the Valparaiso city limits, police said.
At Campbell Street
and Vale Park Road, the Valparaiso Police Department succeeded in deploying
stop sticks but Rallings managed to continue northbound in the southbound
lanes of Campbell Street, police said. Then, in the 400 block of Franklin
Street, Rallings swerved in the direction of a PCSP officer’s squad car.
That officer avoided collision but Rallings continued left of center and
“swiped” a a second PCSP squad car following behind the first, police said.
That officer escaped injury.
Rallings then lost
control of his car, entered a yard in the 400 block of Franklin Street, and
struck a large tree stump, at which time VPD Sgt. Kobitz and his K-9
partner, Geist, placed him in custody, police said.
Rallings was
transported to Valparaiso Medical for a blood draw and treatment of dog bite
and then to the Porter County Jail, police said. He’s been charged with
operating while intoxicated-refusal; fleeing law enforcement; reckless
driving; and possession of marijuana.
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