A Warren County man was charged with two minor felonies last week after he led a sheriff’s deputy on a car chase that turned into a manhunt in the middle of the night.
The suspect, Ethan E. …
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A Warren County man was charged with two minor felonies last week after he led a sheriff’s deputy on a car chase that turned into a manhunt in the middle of the night.
The suspect, Ethan E. Walsh, 28, was taken to the Warren County Jail on Dec. 20 after an hours-long search north of Warrenton. Deputies with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department believe was wash driving a stolen pickup truck that a deputy attempted to stop a little before 1:30 a.m. on Powerline Road.
According to the sheriff’s department, a deputy attempted to stop the truck when he saw it being operated in an odd manner. The truck was driving at less than half the speed limit, had its high beams on despite oncoming traffic, and had its turn signals flashing without making any turns.
When the deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over, it allegedly sped away at more than 100 mph. The truck drove west on Powerline Road and crossed Highway A without slowing down, the deputy reported.
When the deputy caught up to the vehicle, he found that it had crashed into an electrical pole and snapped it in two, and that the driver had fled on foot. The cost estimate for replacing the pole is $3,500, according to the sheriff’s department.
The deputy called for assistance to locate the driver, summoning a police K9 unit and a team from the Wright City Fire District, which owns a drone with a thermal camera. Shortly after 3 a.m., the fire district drone located a person walking through a wooded creek. The deputy traveled to the area and shouted for the person to come out, at which point the drone team observed the person take off running again.
After this continued for a time, the suspect eventually came out of the woods into an open field and stopped running. When the deputy located him again, the person, then identified as Walsh, reportedly claimed that he was just out for a walk. He was soaked from his thighs down and had cuts on his face and hands, the deputy reported.
The deputy also contacted the owner of the stolen truck, who told reported that he had left his keys in the truck around 6 p.m. the day before, and didn’t know that it had been taken. The truck was substantially damaged in the crash, deputies said.
Walsh, who lives on Highway A near where the truck was stolen, was taken to the Warren County Jail and charged with resisting arrest by fleeing and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage exceeding $1,000. Warren County prosecutors had not, as of yet, charged Walsh in connection with the stolen vehicle.
