Minnesota Man Arrested for DWI; Then Steals Officer’s Squad Car. Tires Shot Out.
09-20-03
NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Northfield police were faced with the embarrassment of shooting at one of their own squad cars, after a man just arrested for reckless driving stole the arresting officer’s squad car – just minutes after being put in the back seat, in handcuffs.
Northfield police first arrested Linster Garvey after chasing him for nine miles until his car slid into a ditch about 2 a.m., Wednesday, police said. He was handcuffed behind his back and placed in the back seat of the squad car.
Officer Scott Sikkink stepped away from his idling car to talk to another officer. In less than a minute, he was surprised to see his Ford Crown Victoria, lights still flashing, speeding away, according to the criminal complaint.
Garvey had managed to wriggle his cuffed hands around to his front and squeeze through the 18-inch-wide sliding plexiglass door in the cage between the squad’s front and back seats, police said.
The chase was on – again.
Garvey, 30, lost police about a mile away by turning off the squad’s lights and driving into a soybean field, over a hill and into woods, said Northfield Sgt. Roger Schroeder. Officers saw the car tracks and hiked into the field after him. A State Patrol helicopter hovered overhead. When its spotlights hit the partly hidden squad car, the car backed out of the wood, turned around and headed for three of the officers, court charges said.
Fearing they would be run down, the officers shot out a rear tire and then fired into the car’s engine. The squad car stopped and Garvey was taken into custody.
Garvey, whose license had been canceled for previous drunken driving convictions, and who has fled police before, was put in hand cuffs – and leg cuffs – and taken to the Rice County jail. His bail was set at $100,000.
He was charged Thursday with 12 felony counts of fleeing and assaulting officers, as well as stealing and damaging the squad car. The vehicle has about $10,000 worth of damage, police said. No one was hurt.