By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Police are looking for the person who led officers and troopers on a high-speed chase through parts of Salina Friday afternoon.
Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said this morning that an officer observed a white 2013 GMC Terrain pulling out of a travel center parking lot in the 1900 block of N. Ninth Street at approximately 2:30 p.m. Friday. It was believed to have been driven by someone police were looking for, so the officer began following the SUV.
In the 1500 block of N. Ninth Street, the officer observed the driver make a traffic violation. As the SUV turned onto N. Broadway Boulevard, the officer attempted a traffic stop. The SUV pulled into an alley in the 800 block of N. Broadway Boulevard. As the officer attempted to make contact with the driver, the SUV took off at a high rate of speed, and a pursuit began, first in north Salina, then south on Broadway Boulevard to Franklin Street, at times reaching speeds of 90 mph, Forrester said.
Eventually the pursuit moved over to W. Republic Avenue, where the SUV went east toward S. Fourth Street. At that point, Kansas Highway Patrol troopers who were working a saturation patrol in town took over the pursuit. Forrester said the pursuers found the SUV abandoned in the 900 block of S. Fourth Street.
Inside the SUV, law enforcement personnel located a backpack that contained methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, Forrester said.
The owner of the SUV, identified as a 30-year-old Salina woman, told police that if someone was driving the SUV, it had been stolen from her driveway in the 200 block of Baker Street as she was out of town.