Suspect T-bones pickup after high-speed pursuit

A Gig Harbor resident was arrested for felony eluding after leading Kitsap County deputies on a high-speed chase through two counties before slamming into a pickup truck near Key Center on Tuesday morning.

Shane Kelly Askins, 25, was booked into Kitsap County Jail — the day before he was scheduled to appear in court on another eluding charge — and charged with attempting to elude a police officer and driving with a suspended license.

His bail was set at $50,000.

According to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s incident report, the incident began when Askins and a deputy on patrol in a marked car were driving on Bethel-Burley Road in South Kitsap around 11:20 a.m.

The deputy and Askins — who was driving a blue Honda Civic with a male passenger — were traveling in opposite directions and both signaled to turn into the gas station/store on Spruce Road. But when the vehicles got close, the deputy said, Askins turned off his turn signal and drove away on Spruce at a high rate of speed.

According to the deputy, the Honda quickly reached speeds well above the posted speed limit, and when the deputy observed the suspect weaving in and out of traffic, he turned on his overhead lights and radioed he was in pursuit.

The deputy held pursuit on Spruce through several intersections, clocking the suspect at speeds approaching 90 mph, and chasing him south on Glenwood Road and past the Pierce County Line.

As the suspect neared the Key Peninsula Highway, Pierce County deputies joined the pursuit, and when one attempted to stop the suspect with spike strips on State Route 302, he had to run behind his patrol car to avoid being struck by the suspect’s vehicle.

The officers lost sight of the Honda when it turned onto a small dirt road, but moments later the 20-minute pursuit came to an abrupt halt when the suspect’s Honda slammed into the driver’s side of a pickup truck traveling north on Key Peninsula Highway and sent it upside down into a ditch.

A nearby Kitsap County deputy witnessed the accident and apprehended the suspect, who was attempting to flee the scene on foot, running barefoot after losing both his shoes in the process.

The two passengers of the pickup were transported to the hospital. Their status was not immediately known. Askins’ passenger was identified and released.

At his arraignment Wednesday afternoon, Askins pleaded not guilty to one county of attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, a felony that caries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Deputy Prosecutor Bob Naon asked Kitsap Superior Court Judge Jay B. Roof to keep Askins’ bail at $50,000, as the suspect had four prior attempts to elude and at least 11 warrants on his record.

Judge Roof kept bail at $50,000, and scheduled Askins’ omnibus hearings on both his latest and previous eluding charges for Jan. 27.

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