A man who refused to stop for a sheriff’s deputy on Thursday led deputies on a nearly 100 mph chase before briefly getting away — but was ultimately arrested while hiding in a bedroom closet in Palm Desert.
The incident began around 5:26 a.m. when a motorcycle officer attempted to pull over a vehicle for speeding at Fred Waring Drive and Cook Street in Indian Wells, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
But Sgt. Don Olson said the man, later identified as 38-year-old Paul Claudio Piermartiri of Palm Desert, refused to stop. Piermartiri fled from the deputy, reaching speeds of nearly 100 mph and driving westbound in the eastbound lanes of Fred Waring Drive at Portola Avenue. The deputy lost sight of the vehicle but later found it in the 44-500 block of San Pascual Avenue in Palm Desert, just over a mile west of where the chase began.
Officers surrounded the home and ordered the residents to come out, the news release said. After hours of no response, officers obtained a search warrant and, with the assistance of the Special Enforcement Bureau, entered the home and found Piermartiri hiding in a bedroom closet.
He “was uncooperative,” Olson said, but with the help of a sheriff’s K-9, deputies took Piermartiri into custody and booked him into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
Piermartiri was arrested on suspicion of eluding, resisting or delaying an officer and possession of an unregistered firearm by a felon, as well as violating the terms of his post-release community supervision in a previous case, according to the release. sheriff’s department.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Man arrested after fleeing at nearly 100 mph in Palm Desert
