BELFAST, Maine — A bizarre, slow-speed police chase through downtown Belfast and side streets Tuesday morning ended after a car rammed several police vehicles and struck a light pole, sending one officer and the driver of the car to the hospital.
The pursuit became a downtown spectacle, as motorists tried to stay out of the way and people having breakfast in downtown shops watched police cruisers zoom up and down city streets as they tried to put an end to the chase.
Neither the name of the injured officer nor that of the driver was immediately available Tuesday morning.
Belfast police Sgt. Dan Fitzpatrick said police were told to be on the lookout for an older model white Volvo around 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, after the driver went into the Waldo County dispatch center to file a report and “seemed out of it.” After the driver left the dispatch center, several locals reported sightings of the vehicle as the morning went on, including one caller who said they saw it speeding backwards down Perkins Road on the other side of town.
Police eventually spotted the vehicle near the police department and pulled it over, but the driver took off as the officer approached. The following chase wound through side streets and the downtown area. At one point, witnesses said the vehicle launched down a steep embankment near Front Street Shipyard.
When the driver of the Volvo made it to Front Street, followed closely by police, the vehicle struck a light pole near the Purple Baboon gift shop and got stuck around 9 a.m. Police approached the car with guns drawn, according to witnesses, and took the driver into custody.
“One of [the officers] raced over to the Volvo and yanked the door open,” Russell Barber, a Maine state ferries worker who watched the arrest, said. “They yanked [the driver] out of the car. It was quite a struggle. The person was fighting back and resisting.”
The driver and one officer were taken to Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, where they are being evaluated for injuries, according to Fitzpatrick. Police said they would have more details about the pursuit later in the day.
Police expect to file several charges against the driver of the Volvo.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.
BDN writer Abigail Curtis contributed to this report.