According to officials, a Hinesburg man is facing a barrage of charges after leading police on a chase through Addison County, while striking a police cruiser in the process of the chase.
The authorities, Vermont State Police, have reported arresting Devon Lewis, a 20-year-old, on three charges of grossly negligent operation, two charges of leaving the scene of an accident and one charge each of simple assault, refusal to take a DUI test, and aggravated assault on a police officer.
The authorities pulled over his pickup truck where Lewis was a passenger at about 8:30 p.m. last Thursday off of Route 116 in Bristol. The vehicle was pulled over after a reported fight at Blaise’s Trailer Park. Others had reported that the passengers of the truck were involved in a fight and the driver had been drinking and driving with a suspended license. When Lewis got out of the truck and tried to take an all terrain vehicle out of the back, Police told him to get back in the truck when he then climbed into the driver’s seat.
Lewis then accelerated the vehicle at very high speeds toward Starksboro, just missing the driver and hitting the front end of the police cruiser, then occupied by a state trooper. With no headlights, he was swerving all over the road and struck another car coming south, then hit a guardrail, which flattened his left rear tire. He drove on for another three miles, using both lanes and narrowly missing more cars before driving off the west side of the road and rolling twice before the vehicle rested on its tires.
After catching Lewis in his attempt to mount the dirt bike stowed in the back of the truck, Lewis was handed over to medical emergency crews. He was taken to Fletcher-Allen Health Care in Burlington for injuries suffered during the crash.
