Driver caught after fleeing hospital twice while under arrest
A Whatcom County man was facing felony charges after he was arrested during a traffic stop and fled police custody twice last week.
Nathanial Chavez Huckaby, 36, was booked into Whatcom County Jail on Thursday, Feb. 16, after spending the previous night at St. Joseph Hospital, said Trooper Kelsey Harding of the Washington State Patrol.
He was being held without bail on Friday, Feb. 17.
Huckaby was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence, first- and third-degree driving with a suspended license, sale or manufacturing of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen firearm, receiving or possessing stolen property, and escape, according to online jail records.
He was arrested during a traffic stop Wednesday, Feb. 15, where the state trooper thought Huckaby was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He was taken to the hospital for a blood draw, Harding told The Bellingham Herald.
Results of that test were incomplete.
That meant that Huckaby had to spend the night for observation.
About 10:30 p.m., however, Huckaby bolted from the hospital, but he was nabbed by a Bellingham Police officer, said police Lt. Claudia Murphy.
Harding said an unidentified woman in a car picked up Huckaby from the hospital early Thursday, even as a state patrol trooper was heading there to take him to jail.
Murphy said that car’s driver apparently crashed into a ditch on Gooding Avenue in the King Mountain neighborhood.
“Officers arrived and found the escaped male in the car. He was detained and turned over to WSP troopers’ custody,” Murphy said.
Because of the crash, Huckaby had to go to the hospital a second time, and then went to jail later Thursday, Harding said.
