Police: After fleeing officer, man crashes into Kellogg patrol vehicle

KELLOGG — A Colorado man was arrested after police said he fled from them and damaged a police vehicle. 

Around 3 a.m. Saturday, an officer reported that a pickup truck with faded Colorado license plates had been parked at a fuel pump for about an hour on the 100 block of Hill Street. 

Since it was after business hours and the vehicle had been stopped, the officer spoke to a man he found sleeping in the vehicle, who allegedly gave the fictitious name of Jack B. Hawk. 

Police say the vehicle had false plates, and they determined it was registered to Riley Alexander Basefsky. 

As the officer was contacting dispatch, police allege that Basefsky started his truck and drove away. The officer pursued.

Basefsky continued onto Cameron Avenue where his vehicle ran over a curb and knocked over a tree, according to police reports. The truck later lost control at the intersection of West Mission Avenue and Helena Street when it drove up and appeared to collide with another tree, police said.  

When the vehicle came to a stop, the officer pulled his police car behind the truck to keep it from leaving, according to police records.

The pickup then allegedly accelerated into the police car, damaging it, before striking a fence and reentering the road, eventually turning onto the Interstate 90 ramp, police records say. 

The officer radioed the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office to ask them to place a spike strip to disable the pickup truck. 

The spike strip was placed in time by a deputy, and the truck was stopped.

Basefsky, of Eagle, Colo., was arrested and booked for eluding an officer, battery on an officer, being a fugitive from justice, felony malicious injury to property, aggravated battery, reckless driving, possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia related to a controlled substance, obstructing or resisting an officer and providing false information to law enforcement.   

While speaking to law enforcement after being taken into custody, Basefsky said he had started a fire back in Colorado and had fled, according to police records. 

No injuries were reported.