VIDEO: Driver Flees With Backpack After West Memphis Pursuit

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — A driver fled on foot carrying a large backpack after a pursuit that exceeded 90 mph in West Memphis, eluding a search involving a police dog and a drone, according to an Arkansas State Police report.

NEA Report has obtained video related to the Sept. 21 pursuit, which began after a trooper reported clocking a car at 82 mph on Interstate 40.

The incident was recorded at about 12:10 a.m. in Crittenden County. Trooper Eli Thomas wrote that he was stationary at the Riverside scales near mile marker 284 when he detected the car traveling 82 mph in a 65 mph zone.

Thomas also reported hearing what he believed was an improper muffler or exhaust system as the car passed and accelerated around another vehicle. He attempted to stop the car near mile marker 280.

After Thomas activated his emergency lights, the Chrysler 200 exited I-40 at Exit 280 toward Martin Luther King Boulevard, went through a stop sign and continued south, according to the report.

Thomas wrote that the car accelerated to more than 90 mph in a 45 mph zone on the boulevard. The driver continued toward Broadway, disregarded a traffic signal and drove onto South Loop.

While traveling through a curve on South Loop, the driver pulled onto the shoulder and abruptly braked, the report states. The driver then got out and ran north toward an apartment complex while carrying a large backpack.

Thomas positioned his patrol vehicle toward the direction the driver had fled and began checking the Chrysler. A passenger was detained while the trooper secured the car and waited for additional officers, according to the report.

Officers from the West Memphis and Marion police departments responded. Police searched the area with a police dog and a drone but did not locate the driver during the search described in the report.

Thomas wrote that the search was eventually discontinued because of the time that had elapsed and the possibility that the driver had entered an apartment complex.

The report identifies the car as a gray 2015 Chrysler 200, marks it as uninsured and states that it was towed.

The driver was not identified in the report. The document does not identify the passenger, explain the outcome of that person’s detention or list any criminal charges.