Ferndale man allegedly leads police on 130 mph chase on I-5, but it wasn’t his first
A Ferndale man who was arrested less than two weeks earlier after leading Bellingham police on a short chase, reportedly led multiple area law enforcement agencies on another pursuit Friday night from Ferndale into Skagit County that reached speeds of 130 mph.
The chase finally ended when the Washington State Patrol set up a spike strip and used a pursuit intervention technique called a PIT maneuver to immobilize the car, but law enforcement fired a bean bag at the fender of his car to take him into custody.
Bellingham police booked Zachary Bryan Demke, 23, into Whatcom County Jail early Saturday, July 4, on suspicion of numerous charges, including attempting to elude police vehicles, reckless endangerment, assault, driving while license suspended, operating a vehicle without an interlocking device and interfering with the report of domestic violence. Court records show he is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail.
The chase began in Ferndale, Bellingham police Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email, but Ferndale officers had to terminate just south of Slater Road.
A Bellingham officer spotted Demke’s white Acura near the roundabout on Northwest Avenue and McLeod Road at 10:44 p.m., after the Acura exited Interstate 5 and the driver turned off its headlights but continued at a high rate of speed and another person inside the car, Murphy reported.
The Bellingham officer attempted to stop Demke’s car, but the Acura continued through the Birchwood neighborhood, failing to stop at three stop signs, travel at twice the posted speed limit and drive into oncoming lanes of traffic without lights and in spite of wet and dark conditions, Murphy wrote.
Demke led police back onto I-5, and the State Patrol took over pursuit near exit 248, Murphy reported.
Troopers reported that Demke continued to increase his speed to 130 mph to Bow Hill and into Skagit County, Murphy wrote. It was across the county line that troopers set up the spike strip and disabled the Acura.
Demke refused law enforcement’s commands to show his hands and exit the car and kept reaching for things in the car and on his both, Murphy reported, leading officers to fire a bean bag at the car’s fender as a warning. Demke was then taken into custody and transported back to Whatcom County.
Neither Demke or his passenger were injured, according to a Bellingham Police Department tweet on the incident.
Demke is scheduled to be arraigned in Whatcom County Superior Court on July 17 for charges from a June 20 incident in which he allegedly led Bellingham police on a three-minute chase in a Ford Ranger through the Roosevelt neighborhood.
Court records also show Demke has previous Whatcom County convictions for assault, malicious mischief, harassment, criminal impersonation, escape and taking a vehicle without permission since 2012.
