Driver ditches SUV, escapes on foot
News editor
All Marion officer Duane McCarty wanted to do Saturday was to give Christopher Logan a warning as he pulled in to Ampride in his cruiser, lights on, where he spotted Logan’s white Ford SUV.
McCarty was looking for Logan, in his early 20s, because he had been identified as having entered a neighbor’s house on Ashley Dr. without permission, while one of the female occupants was in the basement. McCarty said he intended to issue a stiff warning to Logan and send him on his way.
But what McCarty didn’t know, he said, was that Logan had three outstanding warrants and no driver’s license. McCarty said Logan’s address was unknown.
Those were reasons enough for Logan to bolt, leading McCarty on a roundabout chase south of Main between Coble and Lincoln Sts.
McCarty said Logan first pulled away from Ampride and across the street into the parking lot of D&J Liquor store. When McCarty followed, the chase began.
“He gunned it out of there,” McCarty said.
Logan headed south on Coble St. with McCarty in pursuit, then turned west on Weldon St., blowing through stop signs at speeds McCarty said approached 60 mph.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to completely back off because he’s going to kill somebody,’” McCarty said.
As Logan sped through residential streets, McCarty pursued at normal speeds, getting direction from bystanders.
McCarty said Logan fled his car in an alleyway between Cedar and Lincoln Sts. south of Main St., and from there McCarty lost track of him.
McCarty said police have expanded their search to outside the county, adding he could possibly be in El Dorado.
“One thing about it, it won’t ever go away,” McCarty said. “We’ll have enough on him that we can extradite him with the warrant we have.”
McCarty said among the charges police could file against Logan for his transgressions are burglary, fleeing and eluding law enforcement, reckless driving, running a stop sign, six counts of failing to use turn signal, and driving with a suspended driver’s license.
Police just have to find him first.
“The bad guys are one, the police are zero right now,” McCarty said, “but the warrants will never go away. Eventually he’ll be picked up and he’ll have to face a judge for his crimes.”