GRANT COUNTY, Wash. (02OCT2015) – An 18-year-old man is in jail after leading sheriff’s deputies on a 45-minute high speed chase through Grant County.
Around 1:00 p.m. Friday, deputies were answering a call for a suspicious person on Stonecrest Road between Ephrata and Moses Lake. While enroute, deputies learned a red Pontiac was leaving the area. The car’s license plate listed the car as stolen from the Soap Lake area.
Deputies caught up with the Pontiac, which then fled and a chase started. The chase lasted about 45 minutes and covered over 40 miles, travelling at speeds of up to 85 miles per hours over rural roads. The chase continued to points east of the town of Stratford, then continued back westbound.
Police set up spike strips on State Route 28 about three miles east of Soap Lake. The Pontiac’s right side tires were flattened and the car kept driving another four miles before the driver pulled into a vacant lot in the Lakeview community. The driver then ran into a nearby home at 137 Quincy Place and refused to come out.
Deputies called for the Moses Lake Regional Tactical Response Team. The TRT arrived and ordered the man, Randy C. James of Moses Lake, out of the house. He came out and was arrested without incident. It was later learned James had ties to the house and his access to the house was not random.
James is lodged in the Grant County Jail for investigation of possession of a stolen vehicle, attempting to elude police, resisting arrest and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
A female adult in the car was detained, interviewed and released.
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