Driver Leads Cops On Chase, Crashes Into Business: Police

SANTA ROSA, CA — A Rohnert Park man is accused of leading a Santa Rosa police sergeant on a high-speed chase Tuesday, then trying to run off when he crashed his Jeep into a business.

The incident involving 28-year-old Charles Steward Pettway started around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday at Olive and Hazel streets in Santa Rosa when a patrol sergeant watched a "white Jeep Renegade run a stop sign, making no effort to stop at all," police said in a news release.

The sergeant tried to stop Pettway but he sped away in the Jeep, SRPD Sgt. Summer Gloeckner said in the news release.

"The driver of the Jeep continuously sped away from the sergeant, committing multiple traffic offenses, and reaching speeds of over 70 mph as he drove eastbound on side streets toward Santa Rosa Avenue," Gloeckner said.

When Pettway turned eastbound from Santa Rosa Avenue into oncoming traffic on Maple Avenue, the sergeant called off the pursuit, Gloeckner said.

About 1 minute later, according to police, a crash was reported at the northeast corner of Maple and South E. Street.

Witnesses watched as an out-of-control white SUV crashed into a business, Gloeckner said.

Pettway jumped out of the SUV and ran northbound but was detained by two officers about a block away on Stevenson Street, police said.

Pettway initially resisted arrest and tried to fight the officers but was ultimately taken into custody, police said.

"The collision caused significant damage to an electrical power distribution box, causing a power outage in the area and several small electrical fires that were quickly extinguished," Gloeckner said.

Once officers determined the Jeep that crashed into the business was the same one the sergeant chased, Pettway was arrested on suspicion of felony evading, violation of his post-release community supervision, and misdemeanor resisting arrest, police said.

Pettway was treated at a hospital for minor injuries before he was booked into Sonoma County jail.

He remained in custody Thursday without bail, according to jail records.