FOND DU LAC COUNTY — A 20-year-old man from Black Creek faces felony charges on multiple counts, including recklessly endangering safety, fleeing and eluding and carrying a concealed weapon after leading a Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office deputy on a high-speed chase Sunday.
According to a release from the sheriff's office, a Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office deputy made a traffic stop on Jan. 18 on a vehicle that displayed license plates that returned as “no vehicle associated,” indicating the plates did not belong to the vehicle.
The traffic stop took place on Rolling Meadows Drive just south of Winnebago Street in the Town of Lamartine.
The sheriff's office's release says that as the deputy approached the vehicle, it fled southbound at a high rate of speed on Rolling Meadows Drive, leading the deputy to initiate a pursuit.
The vehicle then turned westbound on Highway 23, leading deputies on a pursuit that lasted around 23 minutes and covered about 24 miles west of the City of Fond du Lac. The sheriff's office adds that most of the pursuit took place in the area south of Highway 23, east of Highway 26 and north of County Highway T.
During the pursuit, the driver made multiple U-turns trying to avoid spike strips and at times drove head-on toward deputies.
The pursuit ended when the vehicle attempted to hide near a farmstead on Forest Avenue Road, where it entered a ditch and came to rest near a pole shed.
The sheriff's office says that five people in the vehicle exited and deputies who arrived on-scene took them into custody without incident.
During a search of the vehicle, the sheriff's office says that deputies found what they believed to be marijuana and alcohol.
Deputies also followed fresh footprints in the snow from the vehicle to a black bag hidden beneath a building where they found a loaded handgun inside.
The suspect vehicle sustained minor damage from entering the ditch and no squad cars or other vehicles were damaged during the pursuit.
In addition to the 20-year-old driver facing multiple felony counts, the sheriff's office says the vehicle's four passengers, all under the age of 21, were cited for underage possession of alcohol.
Some of them were also cited for possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Wisconsin State Patrol during the pursuit.
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