Fugitive accused of abandoning boy, dog in car appears in court

A fugitive who allegedly abandoned a boy and a dog in his car’s back seat Thursday when he ran from Vancouver police, appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court.

Emil T. Eckstrom, 41, of Vancouver faces charges of reckless endangerment, attempting to elude police, third-degree driving while suspended, third-degree malicious mischief and a misdemeanor warrant for two counts of bail jumping on a prior driving-while-suspended charge. He is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 31. Judge Rich Melnick held him on $20,000 bail and appointed Vancouver attorney Jeff Sowder to defend him.

The boy, who is between 3 and 5 and goes by “Gabe,” was turned over to Child Protective Services, which later reunited him with his mother, said Mindy Chambers, a spokeswoman with the Department of Social and Health Services. Chambers said confidentiality rules barred her from disclosing the boy’s age.

A Vancouver police detective attempted to pull Eckstrom over at 1:40 p.m. Thursday near Northeast 39th Street and 112th Avenue after noticing the license plate on the white Ford Taurus he was driving was associated with a suspended driver’s license and a Clark County District Court warrant, according to a court affidavit.

At first, Eckstrom appeared to be stopping when he signaled and drove into a nearby business parking lot but then continued driving through the parking lot, the affidavit states. Ignoring the detective’s siren and lights, he allegedly continued driving through streets and another parking lot. At one point, he narrowly missed striking a limousine, the affidavit states.

He stopped the car in a gas station parking lot at Northeast 112th and 28th Street and while the vehicle was still running and fled on foot, according to the affidavit. He ran through several backyards, once breaking through a wooden fence of a residence in the 11400 block of Northeast 29th Circle, police said. Police captured him nearby.

Officers found the boy and the dog in the back seat of the car. The boy may have been left temporarily in Eckstrom’s care, police said. Officers couldn’t immediately identify the boy or find his parents, so they turned him over to CPS. Clark County Animal Control took the dog.