FRUIT HEIGHTS -- A 30-year-old man is behind bars after leading police on a chase last Friday that led police through four counties and only ended when the man drove into a tree after his tires were spiked.
Tracy Martin, Washington Terrace, was taken to Davis Hospital and Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, before he was booked into the WeberCounty Jail.
But not before residents of six to eight houses here were jolted out of their early morning routines to be evacuated.
FBI agents and Weber County deputies tried to serve a warrant to Martin at his Washington Terrace home about 2 a.m., according to Davis CountySheriff's Lt. Brad Wilcox. He was wanted on health care fraud charges. Law enforcement officers picked the early hour because Martin lives across the street from Bonneville High School in Washington Terrace, and they wanted to serve the warrant before school started.
Martin showed up about 3 a.m., but remained in his truck. After about half an hour, deputies approached the vehicle to arrest him. He fled, Wilcox said, taking officers on a chase that wound through much of Weber County, into Davis County, back into Weber County, and reportedly even into Box Elder County before returning through Weber County and back into Davis County. "When one Weber County deputy was asked where Martin went, he said 'Where didn't he go?'" Wilcox noted.
While much of the chase could be described as a slow speed chase, it reached speeds of 80 mph on the freeway and 45 mph through residential areas and lasted more than an hour-and-a-half.
Wilcox said the chase ended just off of U.S. 89 near 400 North when his truck crashed through a fence and came to rest after hitting a tree in Clifford Curtis' backyard at 5:39 a.m. That was only because police had spiked his tires near Uintah. Martin hit his head on the steering wheel upon impact.
Wilcox said at the time of the crash, officers tried to get him out of the vehicle and finally requested the services of the Davis County SWAT team.
Police evacuated about 25 Fruit Heights residents as a precaution and Highway 89 was closed down for about an hour. "(Commuters) seemed to know what was going on and kept clear of the area," Wilcox said.
Wilcox said that Martin is also a suspect in a 2 a.m. robbery of the Roy Walgreens prior to the chase. Police found evidence of that robbery and a gun in his truck.
Martin and his former wife were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on 34 counts of health-care fraud. Martin also has a criminal record.