Wild Chase Leads to Two Arrests

Two people were arrested in a flee and elude where passengers exited the moving vehicle that started just off 135 and ended east of town.

Last night at 8:15, a Sheriff’s deputy clocked a vehicle going 88mph on 135. When the vehicle exited the highway on Water Well Road where the deputy attempted to hail the vehicle. The driver took off at a high rate of speed, reaching about 100 mph on Water Well. About a mile east of Ohio, the driver lost control of the 2006 Buick Lacernce, where the deputy waited for backup to approach the vehicle.

The driver, after waiting for just a few minutes, took off again eastbound on Water Well. Shortly into this pursuit, two males and a female rolled out of the vehicle while in motion between 40-50mph. The driver lost control of the vehicle again, and fled the vehicle on foot. When officers got to the car, they could not determine which direction the driver took off, so they used a K-9 unit to attempt to locate him. When a good track could not be found, the officers then used night vision goggles, where they were able to locate Vernon Howard, 39, about two hundred yards from his vehicle, laying down in the grass.

Two of the passengers in the vehicle that rolled out, 19-year-old Halie McPherson of Wichita and 29-year-old Kyle Young, claimed that they were begging Howard to stop the car, and when he refused to yield, they rolled from the vehicle. McPherson and Young were attempted to get a ride from Wichita to Junction City. The relation to Howard is unknown.

The other passenger, 32-year-old Robert Scott Jr., was also arrested for outstanding warrants.

Howard faces charges of deprivation of property, obstruction, felony flee and elude, and possession of narcotics and drug paraphernalia.