Ponce Inlet, FL – A Tennessee man and woman are now in handcuffs following a high-speed chase that crossed through 4 east Volusia cities before officers took them into custody.
44-year-old Kenneth W. Osborne and 46-year-old Melinda Howington Osborne – both residents of Church Hill – will be booked at Volusia County Jail sometime on Monday, according to the Ponce Inlet Police Department.
PIPD Chief Frank Fabrizio says it all started around 11:45am Monday when one of his officers came upon the Osbornes riding in a green truck with a Tennessee license plate near Town Hall on South Atlantic Avenue.
“The passenger and driver were not wearing seat belts,” Fabrizio added “My officer pulled out, got in behind them, didn’t even put his lights on or anything. The people made a sharp turn on one of our short side streets, passed 2 cars [going] the wrong way, blew a stop sign and started heading north on [South] Peninsula [Drive] out of town.”
Police think the truck – which they believe was driven by Kenneth – managed to drive out of the city going around 70 miles an hour as the officer pursued with police lights on, but then made a U-turn and went back into Ponce Inlet, nearly crashing into the officer’s car.
“[The truck] starts coming right back at my officer in the wrong lane,” Fabrizio stated. “[The officer] drives out of the way and the vehicle takes off in the wrong lane southbound down Peninsula.”
It was at this point when Fabrizio says he and another officer joined in the chase, spotting the truck on South Atlantic Avenue a few minutes later.
“We passed the vehicle on Atlantic coming north,” Fabrizio said. “[The driver] sees us. When we make a U-turn, it actually drives up onto the sidewalk, drives down the sidewalk, passes some slower cars and then heads north into Daytona Beach Shores.”
The truck crossed into the Shores and went west on Dunlawton Avenue towards the bridge, but not before the driver suddenly hit the brakes in what Fabrizio thinks was an attempt to have a pursuing PIPD officer rear-end the back of the truck.
“My officer takes evasive action, swings over to the passenger side,” Fabrizio noted. “At that time, the passenger throws a bottle of beer at [the officer].”
From there, Fabrizio says the truck veered into an access road that runs under the bridge, crossed over a median and eventually went up a ramp the wrong way to take State Road A1A northbound from Dunlawton, nearly hitting a Volusia County Beach Safety officer in the process.
That’s when authorities decided to call the high-speed chase off due to the driver’s erratic behavior, but Fabrizio says a Daytona Beach Shores police officer in an unmarked car managed to pick up the truck on A1A soon after that and followed it as it drove into Daytona Beach at a normal pace.
“[The truck is] stuck in traffic at a light [on US 1 near Mason Avenue],” Fabrizio stated. “The Daytona Beach Shores officer gets out [of his vehicle and] approaches him. At this point, the [truck driver] sees him, accelerates, spins out in his [truck] and wrecks.”
The officer managed to catch the driver on foot a short distance away and tackled him to the ground, but that officer also had to fight the female passenger off after she got out of the wrecked truck and attacked him, according to Fabrizio.
“The [driver] starts screaming ‘Get his gun and shoot the pig!’,” Fabrizio stated. “At that point, the [officer] grabs her and throws her to the ground and holds her until the rest of the units arrives on the scene.”
The Osbornes will be facing numerous charges from the police departments of Ponce Inlet, Port Orange, Daytona Beach Shores and Daytona Beach, including aggravated assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, throwing a missile at a law enforcement officer and fleeing & eluding.
Fabrizio noted that the Osbornes both have criminal records in their home state, but neither one of them was being sought by authorities prior to the chase.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.