Michael Ferguson
Michael Ferguson, 26, fled highway patrol officers and police during a wild, 40-mile chase Tuesday morning, passing by Tracy on interstates 5 and 205 and leading police and CHP officers through Stockton and Modesto before looping back on Highway 99 and coming to a stop near French Camp.
Ferguson will be arraigned on 14 counts of robbery, including 11 counts of armed robbery from Tuesday, a felony count of evading police, assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer and felony hit and run.
A Pleasanton police sergeant suffered a bruised forehead after the suspect drove into his car door, which swung and hit the officer on the head, police said.
Tracy, Sacramento, Manteca, Escalon and Stockton detectives waited Tuesday afternoon to question the suspect, whom they believe to be responsible for robbing pharmacies in their respective cities.
The state Department of Justice also got involved in the investigation.
Pleasanton police told the area California Highway Patrol office shortly before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday that cops were chasing a 1997 white Ford Escort. CHP cars joined the pursuit eastbound on Interstate 580 past Livermore and Tracy, and onto Interstate 5 past Lathrop and French Camp.
In Stockton, Ferguson exited on the Crosstown Freeway and jumped onto southbound Highway 99, said Stockton highway patrol spokesman Adrian Quintero.
The driver consistently sped at about 90 to 110 mph, he said. When he encountered slower traffic, he merged to the shoulder and raced along the side of the road.
On 99, Ferguson passed Manteca and Ripon and entered Stanislaus County. Police and highway patrol cars were joined in the chase by a CHP airplane and officers from Modesto, Ripon and Manteca.
In Modesto, Ferguson looped around and merged northbound on Highway 99, traveling at least 100 mph as he headed in the same direction he’d come from, according to Quintero.
Highway patrol cars repeatedly tried to stop the Escort by planting spiked strips designed to shred car tires. Ferguson swerved to avoid the strips four out of five times.
During the chase, Ferguson called a CHP dispatch center and threatened to shoot himself if police stopped him, Quintero said.
"We were worried because we knew he was armed," he said. So when he spun out in an effort to avoid the fourth spike strip near Manteca, Quintero said, officers and the suspect stayed in their cars for a while, as the Escort faced oncoming traffic. Ferguson then turned around and sped north toward Stockton.
Near French Camp, the suspect drove over the fifth spike strip, which punctured his left tire, deflated it and forced him to slow to a stop north of French Camp Road, where he was arrested, Quintero said.
Police found cash in the car, which they took to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office as evidence.
Ferguson reportedly stole at gunpoint thousands of heroin-like oxycodone pills — sold under the brand name OxyContin — and lesser-strength Norco pills from Abala’s Pharmacy, Longs Drugs and Rite Aid in Tracy. Authorities said he also robbed a slew of other pharmacies in at least five other cities, including some in the Bay Area.
On Monday, Pleasanton police said, Ferguson robbed at gunpoint a bank inside a Dublin grocery store.
It was Ferguson’s third robbery that day, according to police, and his first reported bank robbery.
Police suspect he continued his spree, robbing pharmacies in Fremont and San Ramon.
A Dublin traffic cop recovered a large amount of painkillers from Ferguson’s car during a routine traffic stop Monday before the suspect fled.
Throughout Monday night and into early Tuesday morning, several state and local agencies searched for Ferguson until they spotted him in his car outside the Pleasanton Courthouse, where the chase started.
Pleasanton police booked Ferguson into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
