For 2nd time in a year, man charged with fleeing Twin Cities police officers in stolen vehicle
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. — The Inver Grove Heights Police Department says an officer was hurt in its parking lot early Sunday morning by a wanted man who came to pick up a friend freshly arrested for driving under the influence.
The 45-year-old St. Paul man was charged by the Dakota County Attorney's office on Wednesday with three felonies: receiving stolen property, fifth-degree drug possession and fleeing an officer.
"Hard to believe, but it's all true"
Police say officers first spotted two people slumped over inside a vehicle early Sunday just north of the Cub Foods on Cahill Avenue.
The driver was arrested for a drug-related DWI, and her passenger was also arrested for multiple outstanding warrants, police say. The driver was booked at police headquarters and was then set to be released into the custody of a sober driver.
"Now this is where it gets hard to believe, but it's all true," a police spokesperson wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
Police say the sober driver who came to pick her up was the 45-year-old defendant, who had three outstanding arrest warrants himself, and arrived in a Chevy pickup truck reported stolen in Anoka County with plates from a Toyota minivan.
As officers were trying to get the man to surrender, he "placed the vehicle in gear and began to drive off," according to police. One of the officers was holding onto a door handle as the truck sped away. The officer was thrown to the ground and suffered minor injuries, police say.
Two other officers gave chase with help from several neighboring departments. The truck was soon disabled when a South St. Paul officer used the PIT maneuver on Highway 52 near Butler Avenue, about 6 miles from the police station.
The man was brought to Dakota County Jail where a "correctional deputy located a plastic baggie" on him that allegedly contained 0.6 grams of methamphetamine, police say.
Two passengers in the truck were detained at the scene but were eventually released from custody and won't face charges.
The officer struck by the truck suffered minor injuries. Police say Sunday's incident was the third time in two months that the officer arrested people in "incidents that began in the parking lot of our police station."
Suspect convicted of fleeing police almost a year earlier
Court records show the man was previously convicted of fleeing a police officer in Lauderdale in Sept. 2023 after he was spotted in an SUV registered to a dead person.
According to that criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County, the man "almost struck a vehicle" while fleeing at high speeds and was eventually arrested after crashing in St. Paul.
He was sentenced to 22 months in February but his sentence was stayed, and he was placed on probation for three years.
However, a warrant was issued for his arrest in May after he failed to report to his parole officer and to attend a required support group.
He faces up to 13 years in prison if convicted in this latest case.