FWPD: Woman trying to pass fake check leads them on chase
A suspect wanted for using bad checks crashed into two other drivers during a high-speed chase Friday afternoon.
The woman arrested ended up in the hospital after the chase ended in a crash with two police SUVs. Police say she had tried to deposit a bad check at a Wells Fargo on Carroll Street in Fort Worth.
Bank employees contacted police, but the woman took off before they got there and led officers down I-30 and eventually into Dallas. Officers chose to stay on her because she was wanted for multiple felonies.
There were a lot of close calls along the way besides running into a couple of drivers. Officers were able to box the woman in and finally stop her. Police say that chase reached speeds more than 100 miles an hour.
“When it started getting dangerous and she started getting in the breakdown lanes, we would back off a little bit and let the helicopter keep an eye on her,” explained Fort Worth Sgt. Christopher Leary.
Officers chased the woman for 33 miles eastbound down I-30 through Arlington. She was weaving in and out of the rush-hour traffic, crossing all lanes and getting around cars on the shoulder.
The Hyundai SUV finally exited at riverfront near Downtown Dallas, where Pauline Collins and her friend were stopped at a red light near Riverfront and Cadiz.
“She just hit us three times like ‘Bam! Bam! Bam!’” Collins recalled. “And I was like what's going on? It's just devastating and sad.”
The crashes happened out of view from the SKY4 under an overpass where Jacqueline Jones was behind the wheel of her car.
“I heard ambulances coming around behind me,” Jones recalled. “By the time I looked, she already hit my car twice, and she flew by me.”
If traffic blocked the road in front of her, she jumped the curb. With no signs of stopping, the woman tried to make a U-turn in a median to get away, but officers were able to trap her with their squad cars. She hit one of their SUVs, and one of them hit her SUV.
At that point she couldn't get out so the officers went up,” Leary said. “She wasn't responding to commands, so they broke the window, opened the door and took her into custody.”
SKY4 captured several license plates found in the suspect's car. Police say the she's wanted for fraudulent checks and identity theft. Officers were able to take the woman into custody with no injuries to anyone.
Police say the woman doesn't have any serious injuries from the chase, but was taken to the hospital to get checked out for other issues. Once she's released, she'll be booked into jail and charged with several felonies.
No officers were injured.