5-minute high-speed chase involving multiple law enforcement agencies sped across the Twin Ports early Sunday morning before ending with two suspects arrested at gunpoint, one still at large and a Minnesota State Patrol car on fire.
The chase began just after 2:15 a.m. after a Minnesota State Patrol trooper pulled over a suspect’s SUV at Sixth Avenue East and Second Street in Duluth on a possible narcotics call, according to information from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect sped away from the traffic stop, but a second state trooper discovered the SUV, and the chase began — winding through mostly quiet Duluth streets, into the University of Minnesota Duluth neighborhood and then eventually onto Interstate 35 before the suspects drove across the Blatnik Bridge and into Superior.
“It went on for something like 25 miles,” Sgt. Neil Dickenson, northeast region spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol, told the News Tribune. “We had a lot of agencies, a lot of officers involved.”
After roaming Superior for some time, the suspect vehicle drove back across the bridge to Duluth, sped south on I-35 and then turned onto Boundary Avenue and Skyline Parkway near Thompson Hill in Proctor.
The chase eventually ended along Skyline Parkway near Getchell Road. Two suspects bailed out of the still-moving car near Vinland Street while the driver continued.
Two State Patrol squads tried to nudge the suspect vehicle off the road, but the SUV managed to regain control. Officers eventually came upon the SUV stopped, with the driver having fled the scene, and officers from several agencies pursued the suspect on foot into a wooded area.
Squads and officers, including K9 units, from the Minnesota State Patrol; St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office; Douglas County Sheriff’s Office; Duluth, Superior and Proctor police; and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources were engaged in the incident at various times.
Duluth firefighters responded to a State Patrol squad car on fire on Skyline Parkway at Getchell Road at 2:43 a.m., along the route of the chase.
The squad was in the ditch in a grassy area, and the officer had pursued the suspect on foot. “While he was out of it, it just went up in flames. It’s a total loss,” Dickenson said, guessing heat from the engine or brakes may have ignited the grass.
