‘I don’t know why he wanted to get away so bad,’ police say after 35-mile I-5 chase
Law enforcement used spike strips near the Old Fairhaven Parkway exit to end a 35-mile-long chase that reached speeds of 95 mph along Interstate 5 through Skagit and Whatcom counties and arrest a man Sunday morning.
“I don’t know why he wanted to get away so bad,” Washington State Patrol Trooper Heather Axtman told The Bellingham Herald. “I mean 35 miles — that’s a really long pursuit.”
The State Patrol booked Tyler Isaiah Robinson, 27, into the Skagit County Community Justice Center on suspicion of DUI and attempting to elude police. Axtman said troopers, who took a sample of Robinson’s blood to test for intoxication, also found that Robinson did not have a driver’s license.
“DUI and not having a license don’t seem like a reason to run to me, but people never cease to amaze me,” Axtman said.
Troopers first tried to pull over Robinson, who was driving a 2014 Nissan Sentra, at 9:20 a.m. Dec. 15, at milepost 218 near the Starbird Road exit in Skagit County for driving 95 mph in a 70 mph zone, Axtman said.
But Robinson did not pull over, and instead led Troopers through Mount Vernon and Burlington and into Whatcom County at high speeds, though he stayed in the left lane the majority of the time, Axtman said.
With Robinson still driving 81 mph near milepost 240, Axtman said troopers called ahead and requested the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office to set up a spike strip.
Robinson avoided spikes near milepost 2446, Axtman said, but a strip set up near milepost 250 successfully deflated three tires on the Sentra and forced it to slow.
A Toyota Forerunner not involved in the chase also had a tire damaged by the spike strip, but Axtman said the State Patrol would get that tire repaired.
Though he slowed, Robinson continued for another three miles, before pulling to the left shoulder near the Lakeway exit, Axtman said. It was there that troopers made a “felony stop” and arrested Robinson at approximately 9:53 a.m., while Bellingham police and sheriff’s deputies blocked northbound traffic.
The Whatcom Humane Society also took possession of a dog that was riding in the Sentra with Robinson, Axtman said.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 12:19 PM.
