(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. -A high-speed pursuit tearing though parts of Spokane and Spokane Valley ended in a crash Tuesday morning. The chase was so fast and so dangerous that deputies are surprised and thankful no one was seriously hurt.
The driver got away and deputies are still looking for him. But there was also a passenger in the car at the time.
"He gives them the information and the cop takes off all of a sudden, we get in the car and he's like, 'We need to get a tow rope' and he just books it and leaves and puts it into third gear and won't stop," said Antonio Ortiz, the passenger of the car in the high-speed pursuit.
A meet up with an acquaintance became a hair-raising chase through the streets of Spokane. The unwilling passenger a prisoner in his own car,
"He was pushing at least a hundred" said Ortiz.
Deputies were in hot pursuit as the driver of the Jetta through packed streets. Blowing through stop signs, red lights and even a school zone.
Joshua Quirk and his friends just got finished with football practice and were on their way home when the pursuit passed by them.
"It was fast because when the car was going by, we were not even a half a block away and when we got to the full block he was gone."
Moments later the suspect, identified as Lucas James, crashed the Jetta into a Honda and then took off, leaving Ortiz behind.
"I'm kind of just trying to make sure that I can actually process what happened," Ortiz said.
Ortiz says he met James through Facebook and didn't see any red flags.
"He said something about my car, helped me fix it a couple of times. This morning he called me asked me to help him tow his car."
James asked if he could drive, and Ortiz said OK. When a Spokane Sheriff's Deputy showed up to see what they were up to, James took off
"He just kept saying 'I'm going to be good, I'm going to get out of here, I'm going to get away from this.'"
Ortiz says he told James to pull over multiple times but it didn't matter. He just kept going.
"I was saying, 'it's not worth it, people don't get away from cops anymore, it's not the way it is."
Deputies are still looking for James. If you have any information about his whereabouts call Crime Check at 509 456 2233.