Man arrested after high-speed chase in north Clark County

A man was arrested Sunday morning in Vancouver after he allegedly led police on a chase through north Clark County in a stolen pickup truck.

At about 5:10 a.m., officers from the Battle Ground Police Department spotted what they believed to be a stolen vehicle at a Shell gas station near the intersection of Main Street and state Highway 503 in Battle Ground. Police had been alerted about a burglary at 11 p.m. Saturday in the 6200 block of Northeast Wilding Road in the Sunnyside neighborhood, and were told a pickup truck was reported stolen in that incident.

When Battle Ground police attempted to make contact with the pickup’s driver, he fled the gas station, according to a news release from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. The truck headed east on Main Street and through parts of rural Clark County, Venersborg and Hockinson.

At times, the truck reached speeds of more than 85 mph, police said.

Police soon ended their chase in accordance with their policy, the press release said.

Sheriff’s deputies learned of other sightings of the stolen truck and spread out in the hopes of getting in front of the pickup with spike strips.

At 5:30 a.m., a driver on southbound Interstate 205 called 911 to report a vehicle traveling more than 100 mph on the freeway, the sheriff’s office said. The caller said the vehicle stopped on the shoulder of I-205 north of the Mill Plain Boulevard exit, and that a male and a female got out and ran west from the vehicle.

Officers from the Vancouver Police Department were dispatched to the area and apprehended a suspect, Aaron Donald Smith, in the area of Northeast 104th Avenue and 14th Street, the sheriff’s office said. He was booked into the Clark County Jail, police said.

Information on the female was not available.