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Rohnert Park suspect leads CHP on wrong-way chase down Highway 101 in San Rafael

A driver fleeing from Rohnert Park officers on Monday went the wrong direction on northbound Highway 101 and crashed into a patrol car, San Rafael police said.

The car chase began in Rohnert Park when a suspect's vehicle was flagged by an automated license plate reader near Sonoma State University, San Rafael police said. Rohnert Park officers abandoned the chase just before the vehicle got on the freeway, in order to not endanger the public.

California Highway Patrol officers initiated a chase after spotting the vehicle on southbound Highway 101. As the suspect entered the greater San Rafael area, he decided to enter the northbound lanes of Highway 101 in the wrong direction, near San Lucas Valley Road.

CHP officers abandoned the pursuit, but they and San Rafael police set up a roadblock on Highway 101 near the Interstate 580 interchange to protect the public.

The suspect continued traveling in the wrong direction and tried to hit a CHP motorcycle officer, police said. According to San Rafael police, one of their officers saw that the vehicle was beginning to approach the roadblock and other drivers, and he used his patrol to pin the suspect's vehicle against the concrete wall to protect uninvolved drivers.

There was a brief standoff, but police said the suspect was arrested. San Rafael police identified the suspect as 36-year-old Antioch resident Casey Joseph Beck.

Beck suffered a minor injury to his leg and was taken to the hospital. He will then be booked into jail after being medically cleared.

San Rafael police said Beck could face several charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon on an officer. He will also face a charge in connection to a commercial burglary in Rohnert Park. 

No officers were injured. 

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