Police Chase Ends In Backyard

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah – When you’ve lived in the same place all your life you pretty much know what to expect, but every once in a while the unexpected happens. That was the case Wednesday night when two suspects on the run plowed into someone’s backyard.

“A what?” Tammy Parker asked when she arrived home to the news minutes after it happened. “We’ve never had anything like this before.”

Parker grew up on the Taylorsville property and still lives there today as her mother’s caregiver. She’s used to hearing crashes behind her fence on 4700 South, but she never imagined she’d find a car in her backyard with an unwelcome view of the busy road where her fence used to be.

“I’m glad I wasn’t home. I didn’t want to see it. I can only imagine the sound. Had to have been horrible,” she said.

Authorities say it started at around 8:30 p.m. when detectives located a stolen car in West Valley City in the area of 1600 West and 3500 South. The detectives witnessed the car crash into another car with a 40-year-old woman inside. Police say she sustained minor injuries and minor damage to her car.

Officers pursued the suspects when they fled the scene. According to police, the stolen car popped a tire causing them to veer off 4700 South and into Parker’s backyard where the man and woman in their 20’s fled on foot and were arrested a short time later.

“I’m just trying to assess everything that happened,” Parker said as she walked through her backyard the next day. “This is just unreal.”

For Parker, it isn’t just the destroyed fence that was installed six years ago or the insurance claims she’s now dealing with that hurts. But it’s also a new shade tree that was finally on its way up before the unexpected visitors cut it down.

“We’d just love to be able to get some shade so we can enjoy our backyard,” Parker said. “My poor little tree…We’ve been trying to grow it and it was doing great.”

The suspects plowed through the fence and then landed on top of the tree. But Parker knows she can grow another one. She knows the fence will eventually be rebuilt. And she knows that so many other things she grew up with at this home and on this property remain the same.

“It missed a lot of things. We’re very blessed. Very watched over,” she said.

West Valley Police say the male driver in his 20s was a fugitive with a warrant from board of pardons. He now faces several charges including fleeing from police, possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen vehicle and hit and run.