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Traffic cams catch slow moped police chase on I-94
An 18-year-old man was arrested after driving the wrong way on Hwy 94 while riding oped on Tuesday morning.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - An 18-year-old man was arrested Tuesday morning after leading state troopers on a short police chase on I-94 in Minneapolis on an allegedly stolen moped.
Traffic cameras captured the man riding the moped the wrong way on I-94 around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, by the Dowling onramp, before he was trailed by two state patrol squad cars, in what looks like a very slow, and brief police chase. The man then abandoned the moped, appeared to run across the highway, and jump into the trailer of a pickup truck.
The video shows the pickup pulling over and troopers closing in: one draws a weapon while the other makes the arrest. According to Minneapolis Police, the man was booked into Hennepin County Jail for multiple warrants, fleeing from an officer, and theft of the moped.
Minneapolis police say the incident began when officers noticed the man driving the moped without license plates and attempted to pull him over, but he fled down I-94.
An MPD spokesperson said that Minneapolis police did not pursue the moped. The video shows the State Patrol did — albeit briefly, and slowly.
Minnesota State Patrol Public Information Officer Gordon Shank said troopers did follow the suspect.
"We provided assistance on this incident with our State Patrol Dispatchers and troopers in following and locating the subject of the Minneapolis Police investigation/incident," he said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara recently loosened the department’s policy against police pursuits in residential areas so that officers can pursue suspects in violent crimes involving guns — but other law enforcement agencies operating in the city are not bound by the same restriction.
The policy change has received renewed attention after a Hennepin County Sheriff's Office pursuit of a stolen vehicle with six adolescents inside ended Monday in north Minneapolis when the driver collided with another car, and both vehicles smashed into a bus shelter, injuring a pedestrian inside.