Vehicle Pursuit Ends at Sheriff’s Office

LIBERTY, December 9, 2007 – In the early morning hours of Sunday morning, Captain Chip Fairchild was on patrol on Martin Drive in the Ames when a vehicle approached him from the rear driving erratically. The vehicle passed Fairchild’s vehicle almost hitting him.

Fairchild activated his lights and the older model Oldsmobile sedan fled down Martin Drive turning west onto Old Beaumont Road. Fairchild pursued the vehicle west on Old Beaumont Road crossing the Bypass where the vehicle ran off the road near the new Church at the intersection of Old Beaumont and the Bypass. It came back onto the roadway and continued at speed west of Beaumont Avenue toward the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.

The vehicle went out of control near the intersection of Beaumont Ave. and the Kentucky Street in Liberty, striking a utility pole and rolling several times into the drainage ditch in front of the Civigenics Building adjacent to the Sheriff’s Office.

It was first thought that the driver was pinning inside the vehicle. However, the driver came out of the vehicle and was combative with Officers at the scene. He was restrained until City of Liberty EMS arrived and he was loaded onto a waiting ambulance and transported to a Houston hospital for treatment of possible internal injuries.

The driver of the vehicle was identified as Blake Wickliff age 22 of Raywood, TX. Wickliff told officer he had taken drugs prior to the incident and it is thought that his altered state of consciousness was the reason for the pursuit.

According to Fairchild, Wickliff has a criminal history and will be charged with Fleeing or Evading in a Motor Vehicle, a Felony, as a result of the early Sunday morning pursuit that occurred around 1:30 AM.