Man compliments driving of cop who pursued him onto Sumner school's track

SUMNER, Wash. — The driver who crashed his truck on the Sumner Middle School track while fleeing police last week was impressed, according to charging papers.

Not with his own driving but with the officer’s.

“During the arrest, defendant noted the name tag of the officer and made a statement to the effect of, ‘(expletive) Taylor, was that you behind me the whole time? That was good driving,’” deputy prosecutor Kathleen Proctor wrote Tuesday in the declaration for determination of probable cause.

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Court records give this account:

The Orting officer saw a pickup slide through an intersection Saturday and noticed it matched the description of a truck that had been in an earlier hit-and-run crash.

The officer used his lights and sirens to try to stop the truck, but the driver kept going. The suspect got up to about 60 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone, somewhere between 70 and 90 mph in a 35 mph area, and forced some other drivers off the road.

He also ran about six red lights and ultimately drove down a dead-end road and over an embankment, where he crashed onto the track.

He said he was scared of police, and that he’d just been trying to get to his kid’s basketball game.

The 34-year-old was charged with two counts of trying to elude police (he allegedly fled a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy the day before the wreck), and his bail was set at $100,000.

KIRO