TWO POLICE PURSUITS OVERNIGHT END WITH ARRESTS
• A 31-year-old man wanted for probation violations led deputies on a high-speed pursuit overnight – a good portion of it on two spiked and flattened tires – through Littlerock and Rochester before driving into a ditch and being arrested. It began when an Olympia police officer on his way home contacted the driver near the Ritchie Brothers complex on Case Road Southwest, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Donald M. Bush, listed as transient, had a Department of Corrections warrant for second-degree escape from community custody, meaning he had not been in proper contact with his community corrections officer, according to Lt. Greg Elwin. Bush sped away in his 2007 Ford Escape reaching speeds of 100 mph as two sheriff’ deputies got behind him, Elwin said. His tires were spiked at Littlerock Road near 130th Avenue yet he continued to Mima Road Southwest and then Bordeaux Road Southwest before coming to rest in a ditch, according to Elwin. The pursuit covered sixteen miles in 14 minutes, Elwin said. Bush reportedly told the officers he knew he would be going back to prison if he were caught. Bush was booked into the Thurston County Jail for eluding a police vehicle.
• A 17-year-old driver was arrested after he reportedly screeched his Crown Victoria sideways through a Chehalis intersection last night in front of sheriff’s deputies standing outside a door at the sheriff’s office evidence facility. Deputies jumped in their patrol cars and when they rounded a corner, observed the car stopped up on the curb atop the remnants of a concrete planter it had pushed nearly a block, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It happened about 10:30 p.m. The teenager was arrested for driving under the influence and turned over to a sober driver, Chief Deputy Stacy Brown said.
TWO ARRESTED FOR BURNING CAR FOUND IN ONALASKA
• A Honda Civic found burning off Kruger Road in Onalaska earlier this month led to the arrest yesterday of two individuals who had reportedly stolen the car and lit in on fire to try to hide it, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives yesterday arrested James A. Bitner, 28, of Centralia for second-degree arson. His accomplice, Courtney R. Blurton, 24, of Onalaksa was also arrested, according to Chief Deputy Stacy Brown. The vehicle had been stolen on Feb. 26 from Coal Creek Road.
VEHICLE PROWLS
• Centralia police were called yesterday to the 2800 block of Russell Road where tools had been stolen from the back of a truck overnight.
• Centralia police took a report yesterday morning of jewelry stolen from a vehicle on the 1000 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter