Man in custody after running cars off I-15, causing hourslong police chase in Washington County

SALT LAKE CITY — A man was arrested Tuesday night after he ran multiple cars off the road and evaded police for hours in Hurricane, according to the sheriff’s office.

At approximately 5:30 p.m., dispatch received multiple calls reporting a dark green truck that was running other cars off the roadway on southbound Interstate 15 near milepost 36, near Toquerville.

According to court documents, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper located the truck and watched it take exit 16 near Hurricane. A deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office positioned their patrol vehicle at 5300 W. State Street and waited for the truck.

“I observed a forest green truck pass by me at a high rate of speed, passing vehicles in the median,” the deputy wrote in an affidavit. “I activated my overhead emergency lights and sirens and attempted to conduct a traffic stop.”

The truck evaded, moving eastbound on state Route 9, traveling over 100 mph and crossing into oncoming traffic, according to the affidavit. It then turned around, moving west on Route 9, from Pheasant Drive.

“The vehicle swerved directly towards me in a collision course with my vehicle at a high rate of speed, and I swerved to avoid a collision,” the deputy wrote. “I observed the vehicle swerve toward (a) UHP trooper after passing my patrol vehicle.”

The deputy then lost visual contact with the truck, and it continued through the city and along state Route 59 toward Gould Wash Road, where officers waited for it. Visuals were lost again when the truck turned instead onto a dirt road. The officers contacted dispatch again for more information and learned the truck was registered to a man named William Barlow.

The deputy met with the officers waiting at the “containment” spot until just before 8 p.m. when the deputy “observed a (man) walking eastbound on Three Points Road.”

“I asked the man who he was and he advised me his name was William Barlow,” the deputy wrote.

Orders were given to Barlow to stop walking and raise his hands, but he continued walking. More deputies arrived at the scene to help take Barlow into custody. According to the affidavit, Barlow struck a deputy with a closed fist in the mouth as he resisted.

“William refused to surrender his hands to be placed into handcuffs, and was dry-stunned with a taser to gain compliance,” the affidavit said.

Once detained, Barlow was taken first to the Hurricane emergency room for medical clearance, and then to the Purgatory Correctional Facility where a THC cartridge was confiscated from Barlow’s belongings.

The affidavit said Barlow told booking officers that when he gets out of jail he will get “another truck and do it all over again.”

He was booked on an aggravated assault charge, a third-degree felony; two counts of failure to stop or respond to officers, third-degree felonies; assault on a peace officer, a class A misdemeanor, possession of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor; and reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor.