A green Jeep Cherokee led police on a vehicle chase through Twin Lakes and Lemon Creek Thursday morning.
Juneau residents on the road pulled over as soon as they heard the lights and sirens, one eyewitness said.
“(The Jeep) went by me into the neighborhood going at least 50 miles per hour,” one witness, who declined to be named, said. “The police were close behind, but I think they backed off a little bit in the neighborhood.”
Juneau Police Department Sgt. David Wrightson said in a release that the incident began at 8:11 a.m. when JPD received a report of possible drug activity in the vehicle, which was parked by Twin Lakes on Old Glacier Highway.
When a responding officer walked up to the vehicle and tried to contact the two occupants inside, it sped off toward Vanderbilt Hill Road. The officer turned on his police vehicle’s lights and sirens and followed.
According to JPD’s release, the officer followed the vehicle as it turned right on Vanderbilt toward Lemon Creek and onto Glacier Highway. The Jeep was going about 60 miles per hour on the highway, which has a 40 mile per hour speed limit, and then it turned onto Central Avenue, a residential neighborhood.
It was then that the police officer turned off his lights and sirens and terminated the chase, Wrightson said in a statement.
JPD generally does not engage in vehicle chases, especially in residential areas, because they consider them “inherently dangerous,” JPD spokesman Lt. David Campbell told the Empire recently.
Police later located the vehicle, abandoned, in a driveway on Mountain Avenue. Officers were seen searching the car. JPD has not yet said if drugs or drug paraphernalia were found.
JPD is still looking for the occupants of the vehicle. Police are encouraging anyone with information about the crime to call JPD at 586-0600.
