UPDATE: Alexander Kean Barber pleaded guilty Jan. 11, 2019, in Clark County Superior Court to attempting to elude police and was sentenced to more than a year in prison, court records show.
A 23-year-old Vancouver man who four years ago was arrested for leading officers on a high-speed chase was back in court Wednesday, facing similar allegations.
Alexander Kean Barber was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree assault, attempting to elude police and heroin possession. Court records show Barber was also wanted on a Washington Department of Corrections warrant.
According to a probable cause affidavit, a Vancouver police officer tried to pull over a Chevrolet Malibu on Northeast 52nd Street and Northeast 66th Avenue for a broken brake light. The officer also wrote in the affidavit that a detective had relayed that the driver was wanted.
At the sight of flashing lights, Barber sped off through neighborhoods, and the officer lost the vehicle. But other police patrolling the area spotted the car speeding eastbound on Northeast Burton Road, according to the affidavit.
The chase continued for several turns and ended up near Northeast 85th Avenue and Royal Street, where Barber allegedly drove toward another vehicle. He “drove head-on toward the victim’s vehicle at a high rate of speed with what appeared to be the intent to produce great bodily harm to the victim,” the affidavit says.
Barber’s vehicle crashed into a curb, popping a front tire. Police disabled the vehicle a short time later with a Pursuit Intervention Technique, or PIT, maneuver. Barber then exited his car, dropping a backpack that contained a black substance inside that tested positive for heroin. When he was caught, Barber said he swallowed heroin, according to the affidavit.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis set Barber’s bail at $75,000. An arraignment hearing was scheduled for Nov. 1.
Barber was arrested in 2014, when he was 19, for leading police on a chase that crossed into Portland and ended after he rammed a police vehicle. He was charged in Multnomah County, Ore., and sentenced in January 2015 to two years imprisonment.
