Police say man accused of leading Frazer officers on chase arrested on separate charges
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A Florida man who got away after leading police on a chase along Route 28 and trying to run down an officer who attempted to stop him with spike strips has been arrested, according to authorities.
Frazer police have charged Derek Lewis Washington, 33, of Lauderdale Lakes with four felony counts of aggravated assault along with four counts of reckless endangerment and counts of resisting arrest, fleeing from police and reckless driving in connection with the alleged Aug. 18 incident.
However, it was the Cranberry Township police that arrested Washington on separate charges.
Cranberry officers contacted investigators in Frazer on Aug. 27 to notify them that Washington had been taken into custody and charged with felony counts of access device fraud, conspiracy and identity theft along with two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and counts of theft from a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief, according to court records.
Washington was being detained in the Allegheny County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash bond, according to court records. He faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge David Sosovicka on Oct. 3.
According to a criminal complaint in the Frazer case, police got a hit on a license plate at the Pittsburgh Mills for a silver Jeep with Michigan registration about 2:30 p.m. Aug. 18 after entering the information into its automatic plate reading system earlier in the day.
The vehicle was being sought by several law enforcement agencies in the region for “various crime sprees throughout several counties,” police wrote in the complaint.
Officers searching the parking lots at the shopping center followed the Jeep as it left about 3:10 p.m. and got onto southbound Route 28, where they tried to pull the driver over, the complaint said.
Police said the vehicle took off after an officer knocked on the window and ordered the driver to shut the engine off, unlock the door and hand over the keys, the complaint said.
Police said the driver, later identified as Washington, swerved toward a Shaler police officer who responded to the chase and tried to disable the vehicle by tossing a spike strip in its path, the complaint said.
The officer was able to avoid being hit and managed to deploy the spike strip, but it landed upside down on the pavement and failed to flatten the tires, according to the complaint.
Police said the pursuit came to a standstill in heavy traffic near the 31st Street Bridge, and a Frazer police officer pulled up behind the Jeep before Washington put it in reverse and crashed it into the cruiser, the complaint said.
Washington then turned the Jeep around, hit the police car a second time and then struck a private vehicle before fleeing the wrong way up the bridge ramp and across the bridge, the complaint said.
Police ended the pursuit and provided 911 dispatchers with a description of the vehicle and the driver.
On Aug. 19, Frazer police obtained a photo of Washington from security cameras at the Walmart at Pittsburgh Mills. The same day, Pittsburgh police found the Jeep hidden between two trucks in the city’s Bloomfield neighborhood, and it was towed to Frazer, where it was searched by the county’s mobile crime unit.
Washington was ordered to stand trial on the Butler County charges during an Aug. 26 preliminary hearing, court records show.