OPD in high-speed chase to Seymour

Olney Police secured the long-distance surrender of a Longview man who led officers on a high-speed chase to Seymour before disappearing into a neighborhood, Police Chief Dan Birbeck said.

Police Cpl. Miranda Wright stopped the 24-year-old suspect, Jacob Feerer, on Main Street for speeding at 4:48 a.m. on Sept. 23, Chief Birbeck said. During the stop, Mr. Feerer was initially unable to provide proof of insurance, and Cpl. Wright detected the odor of marijuana from the vehicle, he said.

“He refused multiple requests to exit the vehicle, and according to Officer Wright, the driver was acting suspicious and evading her attempts to conduct further investigation into narcotics in the vehicle,” Chief Birbeck said.

Mr. Feerer “wanted to be released with just a citation or to drive to the police station and [talk to] a supervisor,” he said.

Chief Birbeck said he arrived at the scene and attempted “multiple times’’ to advise Mr. Feerers that the U.S. Supreme Court “has ruled that officers can remove people from their vehicles to run an open-air search with a K9.”

When Chief Birbeck unlatched the door of the silver Impala, Mr. Feerer “threw it into gear and sped away at a high rate of speed,” Chief Birbeck said.

During the 30-mile chase down State Highway 114, Mr. Feerer reached speeds above 100 mph, drove in oncoming lanes, turned off his headlights and struck road reflectors and a mailbox near Seymour, Chief Birbeck said.

As police slowed down in a residential area at Business Route 283 and State Highway 114, they lost sight of the driver, he said.

Mr. Feerer did, however, turn himself in to police in Longview after Chief Birbeck called his mother to advise that a warrant for evading arrest had been obtained.

“The following day he reached out to me and made arrangements to turn himself in in Longview,” Chief Birbeck said. “We wanted him to turn himself in to the closest law enforcement agency before he got injured in a subsequent encounter with police.”