A Utah National Guard fire brigade member tackled an allegedly drug-fueled man who had fled in a stolen police truck Wednesday evening outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Staff Sgt. Brian Udy told Army Times he happened upon the fugitive as the latter ran from a truck disabled by a police spike strip. The man, identified as 23-year-old Douglas Walker Ellison, hit the spike strip, drove over a median, and then tried to flee on foot, according to both Udy and law enforcement officers.
When Udy looked behind him and realized Ellison had a police-free path toward a shopping district, the Gguardsman took the initiative and use his position in Ellison's path to make a stand.
"I thought if I got in front of him he'd stop, not go toward a heavily-populated area," Udy said, noting that Ellison was running toward a shopping district. "I was telling him to stop, to get down. He wasn't stopping."
Ellison juked to his right (Udy's left) and jumped a short concrete median Udy estimated to be 18 inches tall. As he jumped, the 6-foot-4 Udy laid into him, eventually tackling him into a pursuing police vehicle as it slammed on its breaks. Udy said the vehicle was still moving, albeit barely, when he drove the man into its door.
"It put a pretty good dent in it. He took him down pretty hard," said Sgt. Spencer Cannon, a spokesman for the Utah County Sheriff's Department.
Ellison had been placed into custody on a warrant for violating his parole for, among other things, driving under the influence of methamphetamine. Cannon said police determined Ellison was high on meth again as he fled, based on a preliminary drug test, erratic behavior and driving, and Ellison himself admitting as much to police after the chase.
Ellison has prior arrests for crimes ranging from child abuse to resisting arrest to theft, according to Utah public records. Cannon said Ellison's arrest record was 29 pages long.
Ellison managed to escape when he was left handcuffed in a police pickup truck. The arresting officer had gone with Ellison's wife into their home to retrieve some shoes. Ellision was barefoot. It was at that time that Ellison managed to get his cuffed hands under his legs and in front of him, and shift into the driver's seat. He took off, eventually finding a spare handcuff key and removing the cuffs during the trip.
Police tracked him using a GPS signal from the truck, but he managed to drive about 15 miles in a chase reaching 90 mph, Cannon said, to a spot in neighboring Saratoga Springs. There police stopped his car with the spike strip.
Ellison got about 50 yards from the disabled police truck before encountering Udy.
Udy said Ellison kept fighting after he took him down. A plain-clothes officer came to assist and straddled Ellison's back. Since he needed both hands to secure his right arm, Udy said he grabbed Ellison's left, took the cuffs off the officer's belt, and cuffed the left wrist while pulling it toward the officer so he could lock up the right.
Udy said his training in the military enabled him to act without having to think, and that any one else with his background would have done the same.
In addition to the parole violation, Ellison now faces a litany of felonies and misdemeanors, including aggravated assault, vehicle theft, failure to stop at the command of a law enforcement officer, escape from official custody and interference with an arresting officer.
"I'm just happy nobody got hurt," Udy said. "Because he wasn't stopping, that was apparent."
A full time employee of the National Guard at Camp Williams, Udy is a food services specialist with the 65th Fires Brigade. He also has a secondary MOS of 11B infantryman and has deployed to Iraq. He has previously worked in juvenile services and retail loss prevention.
