05/11/16 Jonesboro, AR – Hazard Driving Stop – Suspect Ignored Commands – Tased – No Effect – Tased Second Time – Jumps Into And Steals Police Car – Chase – Stops For State Trooper

May 11, 2016

ksla.com

A man stole a police cruiser and drove off leading police on a chase Tuesday night.

According to a press release from the Jonesboro Police Department, a Trumann man was the suspect.

Police first responded to a local hospital after Albert Brown, 39, reported that “the Ku Klux Klan had tampered with his transmission and they may try to kill him before an officer gets there.”

When officers arrived, Brown would not speak with them, refused treatment and left the hospital.

Less than an hour alter, dispatch received multiple reports of a man driving hazardously, disregarding traffic signals and running other cars off the road.

Cpl. Keri Varner spotted the car and stopped it on I-555, east of the Southwest Drive intersection.

Brown stopped on the shoulder and got out of the vehicle.

He ignored Varner’s commands to step back to her vehicle. Instead, he got back in his own vehicle.

Varner deployed her taser, but it had no effect on Brown.

He left his car in gear, got out and started running from Varner.

Officer Susan Gray arrived on scene at Culberhouse to assist Varner. She also tased Brown with no effect.

Brown ran from them, jumped in Gray’s vehicle and sped off in it.

James Barham was at Parker Road when the incident occurred.

He said he saw the suspect with his hands in the air while approaching the officer.

“We were stunned,” Barham said. “We’d never seen anything like it and it was an eerie feeling. Just all the traffic had come to a standstill and I told… after a few seconds I told my wife we gotta start recording cause I didn’t know what was gonna happen.”

Brown fled south down Culberhouse, to Lawson Road then to Stadium Boulevard to Highway 158 and eventually to I-555 southbound at Bay. Officers were behind him the whole time.

Barham told Region 8 News he saw more than 10 officers responding to the chase.

State Police Trooper First Class Anthony Maggitt, who took the lead of the chase, pulled up beside Brown and motioned for him to stop.

Brown stopped and was taken into custody without further incident.

According to the press release, he was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation because of his behavior.

He faces multiple charges including theft, felony fleeing and reckless driving.