A Thursday afternoon car chase led to the arrest of an Alabama man on multiple charges.
Andrew Alston, 56, of a Huntsville address, has been charged with DUI, Reckless Endangerment, Vandalism, Open Container, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, Evading Arrest, Possession of a Stolen Firearm, Felonious Escape, Criminal Impersonation and Felon in Possession of a Firearm.
He is currently in the Hamilton County Jail and is due to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on January 15.
According to an affidavit of complaint, just after 2 p.m. officers with the Crime Suppression Unit saw a white Ford truck with a shattered rear window traveling west on Ringgold Road. A registration check showed that the truck was reported stolen in Louisiana. When officers attempted to stop the vehicle the driver fled.
Andrew Alston
The report states that officers pursued the truck, which was travelling at a high rate of speed, to Adonna Lane, before cancelling the pursuit. When police turned onto Adonna, a residential road, they saw that the truck had left the roadway and crashed into a fence. A white male got out of the truck and took off on foot, fleeing through several yards.
Police found the man running in the 1000 block of Spring Creek Road. When he refused to stop, officers used a taser to subdue him, the report states. The suspect was evaluated by EMTs and taken into custody.
The suspect, according to the report, identified himself as Mark R. Collins, but couldn’t provide any identification. The suspect appeared to be intoxicated, as he was unsteady on his feet, had glassy eyes and was almost unable to speak.
When officers went back to the crashed truck, they found a number of open beer cans, a loaded Smith & Wesson handgun and a loaded .45-cal. magazine. According to the report, the suspect was taken to the East Ridge Police department for processing, where he submitted to a breath test blowing .042.
While en route to the jail, the suspect was somehow able to get out of the back of the locked patrol car at the intersection of 5th and Cherry Streets. The report states the handcuffed man ran into a parking lot on Cherry Street where he was subdued.
Once the suspect was booked into the jail he was fingerprinted. A check of the fingerprints with the FBI revealed the man’s identity as Alston.
Officials said that Alston was a convicted felon and had an extensive criminal history in Alabama, including a prior escape charge.
