By Elizabeth Lowe
Staff writer

Groveland Twp. – Although it’s the third police chase getting local attention this week, fleeing-and-eluding isn’t necessarily increasing, says an officer involved in a two-county chase.
A 19-year-old Flint man driving a 1991 four-door Buick Century fled Mundy Township police Tuesday, said Michigan State Police Trooper Josh Dirke of the Flint post.
Mundy Township officers considered the driver a suspicious person as he drove through a mobile home park, and were attempting to obtain identification about 9:45 a.m. July 19 when the chase began.
After occupants gave officers their names, a 17-year-old female passenger from Flint–who had started to walk away–jumped back into the vehicle and the driver took off, said Dirke, who was involved in the chase, along with MSP Trooper Rick Kane.
Sgt. Tom Fontana, a paramedic driver from the Genesee County Sheriff Department, and officers from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office also were part of the chase.
The driver entered southbound I-75 from Bristol Road, where Grand Blanc Township officers assisted in the chase by throwing stop sticks in the suspect vehicle’s path.
The vehicle exited at Dixie Highway, driving southbound in the northbound lane, rear-ending a Michigan State Police patrol car just south of Grange Hall Road, Dirke said. Another state police car was also involved in the crash, hitting the suspect’s car on the passenger side.
No one was injured during the chase or crash.
On July 11 the driver was convicted of another fleeing-and-eluding incident in Genesee County.
The driver is currently lodged in the Genesee County Jail, and was expected to be arraigned late last week on charges of felonious assault; fraudulent possession of a Bridge card, a felony; fleeing and eluding second degree, also a felony; as well as a misdemeanor charge for not carrying a license, and another misdemeanor charge for unlawful use of a license plate.
A third occupant, a 20-year-old Flint man, was also in the car. Neither passenger is being charged in the incident.
Despite the recent death of Flint police officer Owen Fisher during a police chase, officers accept the risk as part of the job.
‘It’s not necessarily (happening) more often, but it just happens to be close timing with the fatality in Flint,? said Dirke.
‘Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast…someone’s always going to be running from us.?