David W. Wiebe, 41, has been charged with failure to stop at the direction of a peace officer, a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He also faces misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and driving with a revoked license.
Trooper Brian Zeisel recognized Wiebe as someone who had been advised of having a revoked license when he spotted Wiebe pull into the Boatel bar in the early morning hours of April 29 on a red Kawasaki motorcycle, according to charging documents.
In the bar parking lot, Wiebe, who was not wearing a helmet, let his female passenger off the bike, then took off on Riverside Drive and Park Drive, at times nearly losing control of the motorcycle on the gravel road, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.
Zeisel pursued Wiebe to University Avenue, Geraghty Avenue and Farmers Loop at speeds of about 100 mph, eventually calling for additional units to block Wiebe’s path at McGrath Road.
Rather than stop, the rider went on to the bike path along Farmers Loop, drove around the troopers and continued on the Steese Highway toward Fox, at which point the pursuit ended for safety reasons.
The woman Wiebe dropped off at the Boatel told troopers she only knew the motorcyclist as David, having met him earlier that night. The pair had been drinking at another bar, and she was told to get off the bike when the pursuit began, according to charging documents.
Wiebe was arrested on an oustanding warrant Monday at a Fairbanks home. As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not posted $5,000 bail.
Wiebe has a criminal record going back more than a decade. He was convicted of felony assault and drug possession in 2006 for swerving a vehicle at his ex-girlfriend and possessing methamphetamine.
Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at 459-7545.
My desire is to see some method used, *other than* high speed chases through populated areas, which create a risk to all [innocent] users of the same public roads at the time. Such 'chase response' frequently leads to acceleration by the culprit, creating a greater danger to both the LEO and the public on the roads at the same time, and that acceleration in turn makes it harder to sucessfully take alternative, less risky, actions like blocking.
I just don't think catching this guy immediately was worth risking the safety of others, when there is a way to possibly reach the same result with less risk. And, I'd point out, running him down didn't work, so blocking could not have been *less* effective, could it?
Pearl-Instead of questioning the police tactics which you clearly don't have any experience with or understand, you should be questioning the methods of the idiot on the motorcycle. Had he stopped like he was supposed to, there wouldn't have been a high speed pursuit or any danger to the public. People miss the true source of the problem 99% of the time with these types of incidents. For example, a few years ago, a guy broke into a house in Maryland. The police were called and arrived while he was still inside burglarizing the place. He then came outside armed with a knife, refused to comply, charged at the police and was shot and killed, as witnessed by people in that neighborhood. Yet the suspects family questioned why the police shot him and tried to sue the city. They claimed he should still be alive. Well guess what. If he hadn't broken into a house to commit burglary, hadn't come out of the house armed with a knife, had obeyed the commands given by police, and not charged the police with the knife he would still be alive. While tragic, he was responsible for his own death by the actions he chose to take. Everyone needs to consider that part of these stories first.
I am not saying the police never make a mistake because it does happen sometimes. But instead of automatically just looking to see if the police did something wrong, also consider what the suspect did that made the incident worse than it ever had to be.
great job.
I do realize that the LEO had little time to make a decision, from the moment he saw the guy dropping his passenger and preparing to run, and that there might be little time for dispatch to get other LEOs in place. And I do definitely endorse catching the guy, but I hate to see high speed chases [or transports] in town, as they pose a threat to everybody else on the roads in the vacinity. By pursuing at speed, the LEO often causes the chase to accelerate radically, while slower, following behavior, can buy time for blocks to get in place.
True, the traffic on main roads would be considerably less than at mid-day or rush-hour, but it sounds like it occured before, but close to, the time that bars close [between midnight and 2am]. The main streets in town would hardly have been empty and there's the potential for [often a bit woosy] cross traffic. The main streets would certainly not be as sparse as the Steese going out to Fox [where the chase was discontinued because of *safety concerns*] at that time of night, and with considerably more cross-traffic.
stangorman - what do you think I'm going to do? Bite you through the ethernet? I usually do have some reasons for my posts, and I will explain or defend my position. Is that what you think takes such courage? The fear that one might face a reasoned argument, instead of the name-calling, insults, and inaccurate slurs, at which some others seem to excel?
Also interesting that it was out Farmer's Loop, apparently, before the LEO [or dispatch] decided to call for back-up to block the guy off instead of trying to run him down. One would think that back-up would have been more numerous and readily available while still in town.
Perhaps it should be SOP to call for back-up/blocking ASAP, before the culprit hits the main roads, instead of running a 'hot pursuit' through residential neighborhoods, out onto heavily trafficed main roads, etc? Maybe if we pulled ABADE's funding, and put that funding and manpower into regular police work, there would be the available resources needed to do this, a definate benefit to the safety of the general public.