TAYLORSVILLE (ABC 4 News) - A high speed chase, late this morning, sent one police officer to the hospital and landed two people in jail.
Cottonwood Heights police pulled over a mini-van at 11:30 a.m. for what looked like an expired license plate tab.
ABC 4 News spoke exclusively with a witness who did not want to go on camera.
"It was just like the movies," the witness said. "There were cars coming from everywhere."
The van looked suspicious, not only because of the license plate, but also because its back window was busted out. The officer who pulled the van over called for backup and started checking the IDs of the couple inside the van. Next thing you know, the driver, Aaron Luther Crookston, takes off and runs over the officer's foot in the process.
"It wasn't just the toe, it was really over the foot," said Cottonwood Heights Sgt. Scott Peck. "He has some tissue damage and some swelling."
Crookston led police on a chase down Interstate 215 and headed westbound. He got off in Taylorsville where UPD officers spiked the van's tires.
At one point during the chase, a female passenger got out of the van and took off running. She was later found and arrested.
Crookston finally stopped around 5500 South 1900 West in Taylorsville and surrendered to police.
"They took him down," said the witness. "He wasn't going to run because there was like ten police cars out here."
Officers later learned the van had been reported stolen out of Las Vegas. Police are keeping the van for evidence as they suspect Crookston was using drugs in the vehicle.
Crookston has been booked into the Salt Lake County Jail and is being charged with possession of forged documents, felony fleeing and aggravated assault on an officer. The female passenger will also be charged with felony fleeing.
