He was stalking his ex and evaded officers twice, police say. The third time he fled, he wasn’t so lucky

A man wanted for stalking his ex-girlfriend and successfully evading Lakewood police twice was arrested Tuesday after a short pursuit, a department spokesman said.

A Pierce County sheriff’s deputy spotted the man’s car about 11:20 a.m. on 96th Street South near Front Street South and started a pursuit, police spokesman Chris Lawler said. After a two-mile chase, officers disabled the car with stop sticks and it crashed into a tree in the 11700 block of Pacific Highway Southwest.

The 26-year-old driver took off running, Lawler said, but was caught nearby and arrested on a bench warrant for stalking, two counts of attempting to elude police and three counts of violating a no-contact order.

In addition to those charges, the man was arraigned Wednesday in Superior Court on charges of felony hit-and-run, eluding police and obstructing police. His combined bail was set at $225,000.

“We’ve been looking for him,” Lawler said.

The man was charged in absentia in Superior Court on July 9. According to court documents:

His ex-girlfriend called police June 24 to say he was sitting in the parking lot of her apartment complex, violating a no-contact order that had been in place for more than a year. She left the complex and went to a nearby big-box store to call police.

Then she spotted the man in the parking lot. Officers tried to catch him but were thwarted by heavy traffic.

The woman called police later that day, saying the man was following her as she drove, after again waiting for her in the parking lot of her apartment complex. He had called her five times that day and sent a dozen text messages, too.

Officers found the man in a parking lot where the woman had pulled over.

They drew their weapons and ordered him to stop his car, but instead he threaded between the two police vehicles and sped off. He eventually hit speeds of 100 miles per hour before officers stopped chasing him through heavy traffic on Interstate 5.

On June 30, the woman called police after again finding him in the parking lot of her apartment complex.

Officers arrived and boxed in his car, but he tried to back into them anyway. When that didn’t work, he pulled forward over a berm, then fled with officers in pursuit. He got onto I-5, driving the wrong direction, and officers again ended their pursuit.

This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 4:32 PM.