Late-for-work driver leads police on chase

A local man who told officers he was late for work was arrested after he led them on a vehicle pursuit that lasted more than a mile.

Columbus police officers Frank Dickman and Jeff Gilliam were patrolling at 9:55 a.m. Friday near 16th Street and Home Avenue when a vehicle approached the officers’ patrol car from behind, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman.

The officers noted that the driver — later identified as Jacob T. Waltermire, 28, of 817 Fourth St. Apt. 4 — was flailing his arms and honking the vehicle’s horn behind them.

The officers pulled over to see if Waltermire needed help, but the driver continued past the officers in his vehicle, Harris said.

Officers saw that Waltermire’s car had only one working brake light and they attempted to stop the vehicle, Harris said, but Waltermire refused to pull over.

The officers pursued Waltermire with their patrol car’s emergency lights and siren activated for more than a mile before he pulled into a parking lot in the 2200 block of North National Road, Harris said.

Waltermire quickly left the vehicle and told officers that they had been driving too slow when he first encountered them and the officers were making him late for work, Harris said.

Waltermire was arrested on a felony charge of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, Harris said.

Waltermire said Monday that he wanted to make a public apologize to the officers as he now realizes that honking the horn at them and not stopping when the lights and sirens were activated was a "moment of ignorance and stupidity."

Waltermire, a restaurant delivery driver, said the officers were driving 20 mph in a 30 mph zone for several blocks and he honked the horn to indicate to them that the speed limit was 30 mph. When the officers pulled over, he thought they were politely letting him pass, he said. Waltermire said he was aware that he should immediately stop if a police officer puts on the lights and siren, but he was only about a mile from work and he thought he could explain it to the officers.

"I was willing to stop. I just didn’t realize that this was something bigger," he said. "I’m aware that I did something stupid and in hindsight, I realize I really ticked them off unintentionally," he said. 

After bond was set at $7,500, Waltermire was released at 1:37 p.m. Friday from the Bartholomew County Jail on the new arrest proxy program that allows qualifying offenders to be released from jail without posting bond.