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I-55 chase reaches 100 mph; Mound City man faces chargesThursday, November 27, 2008
Wayne W. Douglass, 21, of Mound City, Ill., ran his 2001 black Chevrolet Camaro into a ditch near mile marker 104 on I-55 after shredding the right rear tire during the high-speed chase. At the scene, Sgt. Rick Price said the pursuing officers reported that Williams seemed to be attempting to drive through a grassy area to an outer road in an attempt to evade police. The pursuit began on Broadway when officer Joey Hann sought to stop the Camaro for turning against a light and almost causing an accident, said police spokesman Cpl. Jason Selzer. Instead of stopping for the officer, the driver sped up Broadway to Kingshighway, crossing the center line into southbound traffic at least twice, then entered I-55 at Center Junction. At Kingshighway and Lexington Avenue, Wiliams struck a sport utility vehicle as he re-entered the northbound lanes, striking the other vehicle with the right rear of the Camaro, Selzer said, reading from Hann's report. As he drove north, the right rear tire shredded and pieces of the car body began breaking off. The attempt to reach an outer road occurred as a Missouri State Highway Patrol car prepared to join the pursuit from the southbound lanes of the interstate. When the car came to rest in a ditch, Williams tried to run. He tripped, then refused to stop when commanded by Hann. Williams was subdued with a Taser and arrested, Selzer said. No charges had been filed as of midafternoon Wednesday, but the police seek charges of driving while intoxicated, failure to yield to oncoming vehicles, failure to yield to emergency vehicles, two counts of failure to maintain a single lane of traffic, leaving the scene of an accident and running a red light, Selzer said. Williams had no outstanding warrants, Selzer said. 388-3642 High-speed chase <div id="inlinePlayerContainer"></div><script type="text/javascript">var inlinePlayerParameters = {"f":"MOCAP","mk":"en-ap","containerId":"inlinePlayerContainer","type":"ByUUIDS","prop1":"e3c60cd5-5f0f-4454-bd2f-bcf3e700bef4","skin":"0","headlineColor":"#AB0110","borderColor":"#BBDDEE","padding":"4","sort":"Default","sortdir":"Descending"};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.ap.org/ivp/InlinePlayerUI.ashx"></script> Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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Stop the high speed chases. Get their license number and wait. There is no rationalization justification for killing innocent people because a hot head cop maintains the pursuit.
This isn't the officer's fault.
I agree. the cape PD should not have stayed with this high speed chase - and on I 55 to boot, which should be off limits to municipal police. This chase presented a very bad risk to the other drivers in town.
I just re-read the article and now I'm infuriorated! This is getting ridiculous folks! We have a hot head policeman on the Cape PD who put residents in undue risk by maintaining a high speed chase originating from a minor traffic infraction that continued out on the interstate against a subject with no outstanding felony warrants...and this is just barely 2 months after the same policeman opened fire on an unarmed patron of a bar on Main Street. We need to get rid of Hann! He is a loose cannon!
ONE THING THAT SOME PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND IS THAT AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER MYSELF WE DO NOT KNOW WHY SOME RUNS UNTIL WE CATCH THEM. THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW IF HE HAD A WARRANT OR NOT. THERE WOULD BE NO WAY TO KNOW IF YOU JUST LEFT YOUR HOUSE AFTER HE HURT YOUR FAMILY WHILE YOU ARE AT WORK. IF HE HAD JUST LEFT YOUR HOUSE AFTER HE HURT YOUR FAMILY YOUR VIEWS ON THIS WOULD BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT.
License plates tell you who owns a car, not whos in a car. Pursuits are a necessary evil in police work. They do not chase every car but if all somebody has to do is hit the interstate to get away you would be putting even more people at risk. Imagine the pursuits you deter by catching one and ending their ability to hurt others. Joey is a fine officer and an even better person, you are lucky to have him. Some day when the EMP or some other technology extends to police work we will be able to limit these situations. That day isn't too far off. Until that time, it is just a bad situation when the bad guy runs and starts the pursuit. No answer is right for every situation and our police have to do the best they can. In this case it sure looks like they did pretty well.
I didn't claim that this particular officer did something illegal while enforcing the law (although I know of instances where he did). My suggestion is that it would better serve the publics interest to get their license number and make an arrest later.
While there is merit to most any argument that avoids a pursuit and finds the bad guy you are makeing an assumption that license number = arrest later. It does not. Its like I said in the other post. License plates tell you who owns a car not who is behind the wheel. If it were that easy all agencies would have given up pursuits long ago. The kind of people that do this kind of thing are also the folks that lie everyday so saying they don't know who was in a car is no big deal to them. Thats why its important to catch them and end the situation.
I say all that but please know that I along with every officer I have ever known hate pursuits. I hope that they will not be necessary in the coming years.
Absolutely amazing how you people can take the side of the idiot that was running from the cops in the 1st place. 1)IF he didnt' beak any laws he had now reason to run. IF he didn't do ANYTHING AGAINST the law he has no reason to "Be Scared" and try to get away. Not all cops are good but that dash cam in most cases will protect either the cop or the arrestee. Case in point was the Rodney King case. The dash cams in the cop cars were altered, but the FBI was able to recover enough evidense to back up the other camera that was filming the beating (the one that everybody saw on the news). You people should be backing the officers instead of constantly trying to look for holes in his reasoning. Maybe then most of the criminals would be leary of them instead of turning it into a game and not worrying about the consequence's. Another point for all you geniuses to ponder, why is it you complain against the police or law enforcement and point out their faults and what they did wrong, and try to give the their subject every break in the world but you are real quick to call them when someone else does something wrong or takes something from you?? Utterly amazing how these same people want the law on their side when it concerns them but when it doesn't then give all the breaks to the bad guy.
My opinion (for the $0.01 that it's worth) is that the guy screwed up. Royaly. He ran, then he tried to compound the situation by using the interstate to his advantage. When his luck ran out and he wound up in the ditch. Let him rot in the jail, loose his license, and have to pay the fuel costs for the pursuit, as well as all the other fines, fees, and costs as well. Maybe when WE take bake the damn streets from the bad guys we can sleep more at ease at night.
TAKE BACK YOUR STREETS SEMO!!! Don't let it turn into another Juarez, Mexico