Staff Reports
A driver was arrested after he and a passenger fled from police during a traffic stop near a local middle school.
A Columbus Police Department officer attempted to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation near Sixth and Smith streets at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The vehicle refused to pull over and attempted to evade the officer, said Lt. Matt Harris, CPD spokesman.
The suspect, later identified as Shawn P. Wainscott, 37, of 717½ Reed St., then traveled west on Seventh Street at a high rate of speed where it sideswiped a 2015 Nissan Ultima driven by Thorn M. Murphy, 29, Columbus. Murphy’s vehicle was traveling east in the 700 block of Seventh Street near Central Middle School, Harris said. Murphy was not injured.
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Wainscott’s severely damaged vehicle traveled into a nearby yard and flipped over before coming to a stop in the 700 block of Pearl Street, Harris said. A female passenger fled from the suspect’s damaged vehicle on foot and was apprehended a short time later by the Columbus Police Department’s K-9 Division. She has not yet been identified by Columbus police.
Central Middle School students who were having track practice were moved inside the building and the school had a short lockdown as the incident unfolded, police said.
Wainscott was transported to Columbus Regional Hospital for treatment for injuries he sustained in the crash, where he was treated and released, Harris said.
Wainscott was then arrested on preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, aggressive driving, reckless driving, failure to stop after an accident and criminal recklessness, along with an Indiana parole warrant. He was being held without bond in the Bartholomew County Jail on Thursday, jail officials said.
Law enforcement officers from the Indiana State Police and Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department are assisting the Columbus Police Department in this ongoing investigation. Accident reconstructionists were called in to document the path of Wainscott’s vehicle and the crash that ended the pursuit, police said.
