An unidentified Michigan man has been missing since Monday after he jumped into a river to escape police during a chase and was caught on a police officer's body camera.
Local police said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the chase began when police attempted to stop the suspect's motorcycle for a suspected license plate violation.
The suspect's motorcycle broke down during the chase and he continued to flee on foot despite repeated orders to stop, the post said. The pursuit ended when the suspect walked into the Kalamazoo River “to avoid arrest” and was “swept downstream” by the river's current, according to a Kalamazoo Public Safety post, where police found him “underwater.” He said he witnessed the ship sinking into the ocean, but it did not. resurface.
In body camera footage of the incident, an officer can be heard saying the suspect was at risk of hypothermia.
Authorities attempted to rescue the person but were unsuccessful. “KDPS” [Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety] Kalamazoo County dive teams, KDPS rescue boats and air units were mobilized throughout the night to search for the subject. “Dive teams and KDPS resumed searching along the river this morning,” the post said. (Related: Video of pig named Albert Einswein leading New Jersey police on wild chase)
police spokesperson Confirmed As of Wednesday, police were still searching for the unknown man, he told the New York Post.
This unidentified suspect is not the first to come up with creative and dangerous ways to evade police.
In November, a vehicle theft suspect tried to evade attack from Miami-Dade police officers by hanging from an overpass. A quick-thinking police officer grabbed the man's hand to prevent him from jumping, and the chase ended with the suspect in custody.
In September, a carjacking suspect encountered a swarm of hornets while fleeing police in Seattle. Both the pursuer and the pursued were stabbed, but the suspect was eventually captured and arrested.
