BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A Bloomington man led officers on a chase and injured a deputy while trying to escape, police say.
Around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, an officer with the Bloomington Police Department spotted a truck parked in the 1700 block of West 8th Street that had fled from an IU police officer and a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy within the past few weeks.
The officer watched the truck to see where it would go and saw it turn southbound on Adams Street from Fountain Drive. The truck’s license plate belonged to a different vehicle, police said, and the officer tried to pull over the driver, later identified as 51-year-old Gary K. Robertson, near the intersection of South Adams Street and West Kirkwood Avenue.
The truck kept going, with Robertson attempting to get away, police said. Officers pursued the truck; deputies with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office successfully deployed stop sticks near South Park Square Drive and Belle Avenue.
Robertson kept going, even though his truck had flat tires, until the vehicle went off the road into a yard in the 2500 block of North Loesch Road.
Robertson ran toward a nearby creek bed, where officers and deputies apprehended him. He continued to struggle against them, however, and struck a deputy in the face, causing an injury.
Police found a handgun in Robertson’s truck as well as a glass pipe.
Robertson was taken to the Monroe County Jail on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, resisting law enforcement, operating a vehicle without ever receiving a license and possession of paraphernalia.
Robertson also had an outstanding arrest warrant for a probation violation related to a resisting law enforcement charge, police said.
