Suspect arrested after chase that began when he drove on sidewalk past Lynden police station
A Custer man was arrested Wednesday after leading police on a 10-mile chase through rural Whatcom County that began when he drove on the sidewalk past the Lynden police station.
Sergio Garcia-Vasquez, 34, was being held without bail at the Whatcom County Jail on Thursday, facing charges of attempting to elude police, reckless driving and resisting arrest.
Lynden Police Chief Steve Taylor said an officer was in their patrol car, writing a report, when Garcia-Vasquez drove past in a white 2008 Ford F-150 pickup.
“He was literally driving on the sidewalk for a couple hundred yards,” Taylor told The Bellingham Herald.
Garcia-Vasquez led officers away from the 19th Street police station and headed west on Birch Bay-Lynden Road toward Interstate 5. Taylor said.
Officers laid a spike strip that punctured three of the pickup’s tires near Valley View Road, but Garcia-Vasquez continued to flee and turned south on the freeway.
Finally, the truck slowed and rolled to a stop, but officers had to break a window to get to Garcia-Vasquez and handcuff him.
Taylor said officers were surprised to find that Garcia-Vasquez wasn’t drunk or fleeing a warrant for his arrest.
“He didn’t appear to be under the influence of anything except a faulty thought process,” Taylor said.
