Two Des Moines, Iowa Cruisers Hit in One Week

DES MOINES, Iowa --

For the second time in just one week, Des Moines police have reported a person ramming a police car during a chase.

Damage to car hit on Friday.

The latest collision occurred Friday morning when police arrested a Des Moines man for repeatedly ramming a squad car.

Twenty-eight-year-old Jack Van Sickle was arrested early Friday and charged with felony eluding, assault on a police officer and driving while his license was suspended.

Authorities said an officer tried to pull Van Sickle over for an improper lane change, but Van Sickle sped away.

Van Sickle's car slid under a parked semi-trailer, but a police report said Van Sickle backed up and struck the squad car twice.

The report states that other officers came to assist; one squad car's bumper became lodged in Van Sickle's passenger side door before he was eventually captured.

Van Sickle is being held in the Polk County Jail on $10,500 bond.

Earlier in the week, Des Moines police reported an officer was led on a five mile chase Tuesday morning after discovering a stolen vehicle leaving the Hawkeye Motel at 1801 S.E. 14th St.

Damage to car hit Tuesday.

Officer Robert Clark said after running the plates of the red 2002 Chevy Silverado, he discovered that the vehicle was reported stolen on June 13. After catching up with the vehicle on Bell Avenue, Clark said he switched on his lights and siren and attempted to pull the vehicle over. The driver pulled the vehicle over on S.E. 8th Ct., but accelerated quickly in an attempt to get away as soon as Clark stopped, according to the officer’s report.

According to the report, the driver went off the road numerous times, circling around an apartment building at 2900 Indianola Road and eventually ending up at a residence on the 300 block of E. Pleasantview Dr.

Clark said that at the residence, the driver ran the Silverado over a red canoe sitting in the driveway, crashed into a log splitting machine and then proceeded to drive through a chain link fence in the back yard to reach Park Avenue.

After pursuing the stolen vehicle for almost 5 miles, Clark said he decided to stop the chase and turned off his lights and siren at Marion Avenue. According to the report, the stolen vehicle proceeded to make a wide U-turn and rammed head-on into Clark’s patrol car.

Without stopping, police said the driver reversed the Silverado and drove out of Clark’s sight.

Later in the morning, another officer reported that they located the Silverado parked on the 4400 block of S.E. 6th St. with several items of drug paraphernalia scattered around the vehicle.

Clark described the driver as a white male in his fifties with short gray hair and a butch haircut. The officer also described a passenger as a 40-year-old white female with dirty blonde hair.