Driver Accused Of Leading Authorities On High-Speed Pursuit Identified

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says a man is in jail after leading troopers on a chase in a stolen car. Troopers say it started near Berryhill and ended on the Will Rogers Turnpike after they performed a tactical move to stop the driver.

Troopers say they gave the driver plenty of time to pull over, but he wouldn’t. They decided to end the pursuit on their terms.

“We always want to give the opportunity for the suspect to stop,” said Lt. Mark Southall, Oklahoma Highway Patrol. “Once they show that they’re not going to stop, then we have to take action. We’ve got to put the priority of other people on the road at the top of that list.”

Southall said troopers tried to use other preventative measures, including stop sticks.

“Those actually hit the suspect’s tires but he still continued to run,” said Southall. “At that point, we had to take action on that TVI.”

TVI refers to tactical vehicle intervention, the maneuver law enforcement uses to bring a car to a stop. Troopers say they waited until it was safe to execute the plan.

“In this particular case, there wasn’t a lot of traffic,” said Southall. “There wasn’t a whole lot of public intervention out there that we had to deal with.”

With winter weather still on the ground, Southall said troopers keep an eye on all of the roads they have to travel on. He says they didn’t have any issues in this chase, but troopers also have to plan for the dangerously cold temperatures.

“Try to stay in our vehicles as much as we can,” he said. “Try to expose ourselves to the outside elements the least amount of possible. We have no choice but to work in these conditions, we just have to be smart when we do.”

Troopers identified the driver as Jonathan Miller. They say the other passengers in the car were released.

This is a developing story, refresh the page for updates.