A Warrenton man faces felony charges after allegedly attempting to hit someone with his vehicle, then later fleeing from police.
Dean A. Preis was charged Thursday, Sept. 17, with felonies including second-degree assault and resisting arrest for a felony, as well as leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor.
Around 11 p.m. the previous day, Wright City police responded to a location on Wildcat Drive near the intersection with the Interstate 70 north service road, where they were told that Preis had been demanding that another individual fight him.
Though he did not make physical contact with the other man, Preis then got into his vehicle and allegedly circled around a parking lot at the location, attempting to strike the man twice and grazing him once, as well as striking his vehicle. He then allegedly left without providing insurance information.
Preis’s vehicle was described as a black Tesla with dark tinted windows. Deputies went to Preis’s residence, located in the 21200 block of Quail Ridge, but he was not home. As they were getting ready to leave, however, a black Tesla arrived on the scene.
When the driver noticed the law enforcement officers, he turned around and fled in his vehicle, according to a probable cause statement. Wright City police and sheriff’s deputies activated their lights and sirens in an attempt to conduct a traffic stop, but Preis allegedly would not yield and continued to flee.
Police were able to obtain the vehicle’s license plate number, however, and found it was registered to Preis. Online court records indicate he was arrested later that day. Preis, born in 1983, is being held without bond at the Warren County Jail.
