Chase of stolen vehicle through Central Kitsap leads to charges, flattened police car tires

A 42-year-old woman is accused of leading police on a circuitous chase Monday night through Central Kitsap in a stolen car – during which a Bremerton police officer accidentally flattened the tires on a fellow officer’s car – before the stolen car eventually stopped near Silverdale and caught fire.

A Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy first tried to stop the car at about 11:36 p.m. near the Safeway on Highway 303, but the driver didn’t pull over and continued toward Bremerton.

A Bremerton officer tried to stop the car after it passed him at 65 mph on Wheaton Way, but it again didn’t pull over. An officer wrote in court documents the driver was running through intersections disregarding red lights.

A Bremerton officer at the department's office on Burwell Street was listening to the chase on the radio and decided to plant a tire-deflation device, called Stop Sticks, on the street in front of the station. Though the stolen car hit the device as it passed the police station, so did a Bremerton police officer following the stolen car, according to court documents.

“This caused his vehicle to be out of service due to the fact the two front tires had been deflated,” wrote the officer who planted the tire-deflation device.

Two Bremerton officers stopped near Highway 3 and Chico Way spotted the stolen car, which passed them “at a slow pace and with sparks from the tire,” an officer wrote.

The officers followed the car until it came to rest on the shoulder of the highway near Newberry Hill Road, at which time the occupants fled on foot and were captured. The car caught fire and had to be extinguished by firefighters.

In an interview with police, the driver blamed her passenger, saying he had “coerced” her into continuing and not stopping for police by saying “go, go, go,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged the driver in Kitsap County Superior Court with possession of a stolen vehicle and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle but declined to file charges against the man, who was arrested for possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Chase of stolen vehicle leads to charges, flattened police car tires