A high-speed chase through Ouachita County has put a spotlight on one of law enforcement’s most difficult and gut-wrenching scenarios: a fleeing suspect who, unknown to the pursuing troopers, had young children riding along for the ride. Arkansas State Police are now making clear that anyone willing to use a child as an inadvertent passenger during a police pursuit will face the full weight of the state’s legal system, and the agency’s top commander isn’t mincing words about it.
On Sunday, May 24, 2026, at around 3:15 in the afternoon, an Arkansas State Police trooper attempted to stop a 2012 Toyota Highlander for a traffic violation in Camden. The driver did not pull over. What followed was a pursuit that reached speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour, involved oncoming traffic violations, and ended with a rollover crash dangerously close to live electrical wires. Inside the vehicle were four children, the youngest just four months old, none of whom the trooper had any reason to suspect were there.
The driver, Tyrice Fletcher, 28, of El Dorado, was taken into custody and transported to the Ouachita County Detention Center. Troopers searching the vehicle found a defaced firearm and illegal marijuana. The charges that followed were extensive, covering everything from felony fleeing and illegal weapons possession to four separate counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of no child passenger restraint. It is the kind of charge sheet that takes a while to read aloud in court.
In the aftermath, Arkansas State Police Colonel Mike Hagar stepped forward not just to report the incident, but to issue a broader statement of intent. The agency is putting drivers on notice that fleeing with children in the vehicle will be treated as a compounded, aggravated offense, and that troopers are trained and authorized to bring pursuits to an end using tactical means, regardless of what a fleeing driver chooses to do next.
A Four-Month-Old Ejected, Three Other Children Rescued From a Wrecked Vehicle
The details of the crash itself are not easy reading. After a lengthy pursuit, Fletcher lost control in a curve, left the road, traveled through a yard, struck a light pole, and the vehicle overturned. A trooper immediately secured a four-month-old infant who had been unrestrained and was ejected from the vehicle. Troopers then worked quickly to remove three additional children, all under the age of six, from the wreckage, which was sitting perilously close to live electrical wires.
All four children were transported by ambulance to Ouachita County Medical Center and treated for minor injuries. That outcome, given the circumstances, borders on remarkable. A 100 mph pursuit, a rollover, a live wire hazard, and a four-month-old ejected from the vehicle, yet every child walked away with injuries described as minor. Troop F Captain Rick Neill acknowledged as much, noting that the troopers on scene set aside their own safety to prioritize the children, and that every bit of the danger that day traced directly back to the choices of the driver.
Arkansas State Police TVI Policy and the Debate It Carries
The pursuit involved two attempted Tactical Vehicle Interventions, more commonly known as TVI or the PIT maneuver, both of which were unsuccessful before the suspect ultimately crashed on his own. The TVI has long been a standard tool in the Arkansas State Police toolkit, and the agency has defended its use consistently even as public debate about the practice has grown louder in recent years.
At a February 2025 press conference, Colonel Hagar doubled down on the agency’s pursuit philosophy, warning drivers that troopers will chase them and use contact techniques if they flee. The numbers behind that philosophy are significant: state troopers pursued 553 vehicles in 2024, compared to just 74 pursuits in 2017. Those 2024 pursuits resulted in the deaths of three suspects and three civilians, with nine civilians, 14 troopers, and 83 suspects injured. Critics have raised concerns about those numbers. Supporters argue that a policy of guaranteed pursuit is the only credible deterrent to flight.
The May 24 incident adds another layer to that debate, since the TVI attempts in this case were made without the trooper knowing children were inside. That is not a failure of policy so much as it is a consequence of a driver choosing not to stop for what began as a routine traffic violation.
The Charge List Tells Its Own Story
Fletcher’s list of charges deserves some attention on its own terms, because it illustrates just how many laws a person can violate in a single afternoon. Charges included Felony Fleeing, Possession of a Defaced Firearm, Possession of a Firearm by Certain Persons, four counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, Criminal Mischief, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, four counts of No Child Passenger Restraint, Reckless Driving, No Driver’s License, No Seatbelt, and Improper Passing on the Left. Southwestarkansasradio
Fletcher is a convicted felon, which means the firearm charges alone carry substantial weight under both state and federal law. Possession of a defaced firearm suggests the weapon’s serial number had been altered or removed, a federal offense in its own right. Stacking that against the child welfare charges and the drug paraphernalia count, and the picture that emerges is not of someone who simply panicked at a traffic stop. The decision to flee was made by someone already carrying significant legal exposure before the pursuit ever began.
What Arkansas State Police Want Drivers to Understand
Colonel Hagar’s public statement following the incident was direct. He said he cannot fathom a parent choosing to drive recklessly with children in the vehicle, let alone flee from law enforcement, and called on parents and caregivers across the state to prioritize the safety of their children and simply pull over.
The broader message from the agency is that pursuit policies are not going to soften in response to incidents like this one. If anything, the expectation is that prosecutors and judges will treat the presence of children as an aggravating factor that warrants serious sentencing consideration. Arkansas law does not currently have a standalone felony statute specifically for fleeing with a minor onboard, but the combination of child endangerment counts, restraint violations, and felony fleeing charges achieves much the same practical result when stacked together.
For anyone who watches police pursuit footage and wonders why troopers continue to engage at high speed, the answer from Arkansas State Police is straightforward: the alternative, a policy of abandonment, communicates to every driver with something to hide that running is a viable option. That calculation, the agency argues, creates more danger over time, not less. Whether or not one agrees with that position, the May 24 incident in Camden makes clear that the people who pay the steepest price for a driver’s decision to flee are often the ones with the least say in the matter.