Suspect in High-Speed Adams Chase Arrested

Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — A suspect test-driving a pickup truck who led police on a wild high-speed chase on Tuesday was arrested in Adams early Wednesday morning. 

The incident began at about 11:41 a.m. on Tuesday when an officer conducted a motor vehicle stop on Howland Avenue. During the stop, the operator was positively identified and was determined to have a suspended license. When ordered out of the vehicle, he fled, said police, leading law enforcement on a multijurisdictional pursuit toward the town of Florida.
 
A number of people posted about seeing the black pickup truck enter the Walmart parking lot; a video shows the driver surrounded by cruisers as they try to exit the parking lot at the light. Witnesses say the pickup backed into cruiser to get around the block. 
 
The driver headed up West Shaft Road and toward Florida with Adams and North Adams Police in pursuit. The pursuit was called off at the city line. 
 
The suspect was able to elude police but his vehicle was found abandoned in a remote location in the Savoy State Forest. It was later learned this vehicle was being test driven from a local auto dealer. With the assistance of the State Police Airwing, K9 Unit and drone unit, officers canvased the wilderness for the suspect but were unsuccessful.  
 
Officers received information at about 3:14 a.m. on Wednesday that the suspect was in the area of Glen Street. Police say he fled on foot as officers secured a perimeter.  
 
K9 Adam and his handler Sgt. Curtis Crane began an area search. K9 Adam was able to locate the suspect hiding in a back yard, but the suspect again ran — straight into officers on the perimeter who took him into custody. 
 
The suspect faces a litany of charges pending from the previous day's encounter as well as the early morning contact with officers. Additional charges are pending as well from North Adams Police Department and their involvement in the apprehension.
      
Charges include: speeding; failing to stop for police; marked lanes violation; unauthorized use of a motor vehicle; speeding in construction zone; license suspended, subsequent offense; malicious destruction of property greater than $1,200; and resisting arrest.

Tags: police chase,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Housing Secretary Makes Adams Housing Authority No. 40 on List of Visits

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Executive Director William Schrade invited Secretary Edward Augustus to the rededication of the Housing Authority's Community Room, providing a chance for the secretary to hear about the authority's successes and challenges. 
ADAMS, Mass. — The state's new secretary of housing got a bit of a rock-star welcome on Wednesday morning as Adams Housing Authority residents, board members and staff lined up to get their picture taken with him. 
 
Edward Augustus Jr. was invited to join the Adams Housing Authority in the rededication of its renovated community room, named for James P. McAndrews, the authority's first executive director. 
 
Executive Director William Schrade said he was surprised that the secretary had taken up the invitation but Augustus said he's on a mission — to visit every housing authority in the state. 
 
"The next logical question is how many housing authorities are there in Massachusetts? There's 242 of them so I get a lot of driving left to do," he laughed. "This is number 40. You're in the first tier I've been able to visit but to me, it's one way for me to understand what's actually going on."
 
The former state senator and Worcester city manager was appointed secretary of housing and livable communities — the first cabinet level housing chief in 30 years — by Gov. Maura Healey last year as part of her answer to the state's housing crisis. 
 
He's been leading the charge for the governor's $4 billion Affordable Homes Act that looks to invest $1.6 billion in repairing and modernizing the state's 43,000 public housing units that house some 70,000 low-income, disabled and senior residents, as well as families. 
 
Massachusetts has the most public housing units and is one of only a few states that support public housing. Numbers range from Boston's tens of thousands of units to Sutton's 40. Adams has 64 one-bedroom units in the Columbia Valley facility and 24 single and multiple-bedroom units scattered through the community.
 
View Full Story

More Adams Stories