Early morning car chase leads to arrest, different stolen vehicle

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 30, 2014

A 24-year-old man was arrested early Tuesday morning after leading Portland police on a chase in a stolen car near Portland International Airport and running into four patrol cars and a hotel van during the incident.

Police said Andrew Eric Kunkel was lodged in the Multnomah County Jail on charges of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, attempt to elude by vehicle, attempt to elude on foot, and first-degree criminal mischief. He will be arraigned Wednesday, Dec. 31, in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

No one was injured in the incident.

Police said the chase began at about 3:37 a.m. Dec. 30, when a North Precinct officer responding to the report of a stolen car tried to stop a vehicle near Northeast 82nd Avenue and Webster Street. The vehicle sped away northbound on 82nd Avenue, toward the airport.

As the pursuit neared the airport, several officers, including officers from the Port of Portland Police Department, attempted to stop it by using patrol cars. The driver was able to maneuver the vehicle around the patrol cars, damaging two of them, and continued driving westbound on Northeast Cascades Parkway near Alderwood Road, sometimes driving on the sidewalk and damaging a third patrol car and a hotel shuttle van.

Port of Portland police used spike strips to deflate the vehicle’s tires, but the driver continued on a frontage road to 82nd Avenue.

When officers again tried to block the vehicle, it damaged a fourth patrol car. The vehicle drove into a fenced parking lot, where the driver jumpted out and ran.

Officers use a K-9 Unit during a search of the area and caught the suspect.

After the arrest, police discovered that the car was not related to the original stolen car call, but was a different, unreported stolen car.