A man is accused of carjacking a car in Minnesota while pretending to have a gun, leading authorities into a two-state chase that eventually ended with a ditched vehicle and a wooded escape. The car, an SUV, had no bumper.
According to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO), the incident started at Snelling and University Avenues in Minnesota. At the time, a woman in her 20s was driving in her grey Mercedes GLK.
Suddenly, a man walked up to her and successfully convinced her he had a gun, the RCSO said. There was no firearm, but this individual managed to get hold of the vehicle.
The suspect, unnamed, then drove east. Things would only get more chaotic moving forward.
Hit-And-Run
At the intersection of Western and University Avenues, an incident occurred. A car crash had taken place.
A vehicle had t-boned a van at the scene. The collision was so strong that the involved vehicle’s front bumper fell off. Then the driver behind the wheel drove off, making it a hit-and-run.
Minnesota deputies, however, knew exactly who was to blame for the crash. The front bumper belonged to the stolen GLK, as it even fell off with its license plates.
Crossing State Lines
St. Paul Police Department officers then saw the driver at Earl Street and Maryland Avenue. Officers took the lead, moving forward as the GLK fled through the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood.
Shortly after, the pursuit moved onto Interstate 94. RCSO deputies once again took the lead, pursuing the suspect past Maplewood, Landfall, Woodbury, and Lakeland, eventually crossing state lines into Wisconsin.
Deputies found the ditched, bumperless GLK on the shoulder. A vehicle search was conducted, but the suspect was nowhere to be found.
Two-State Search Effort
The Minnesota authorities contacted the Wisconsin State Patrol and Wisconsin’s St. Croix Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) to inform them of the situation. Soon, the agencies joined forces to locate the fleeing suspects.
Minnesota K-9 handlers went into the woods alongside RCSO and SCSO deputies and Wisconsin State Troopers. They picked up on a trail the suspect used to run away from the pursuing agents.
Then, a Wisconsin State Patrol drone located a man to the south, and he was soon placed under arrest by Wisconsin law enforcement. The suspect, who is not willing to cooperate or provide his name, the RCSO said, will be extradited to Minnesota and charged in connection with the carjacking, hit-and-run, and pursuit.