Crash called suicide try

Dan Kulin

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

A Las Vegas man threatening to commit suicide led police on a 30-minute chase Sunday that ended when he drove into a rock-lined wash along the Las Vegas Beltway near Rainbow Boulevard, police said.

The man, whom police would not identify, was conscious when he emerged from the black car he crashed. He was flown by helicopter to University Medical Center where he was in stable condition, Metro Police Officer Diego Gutierrez said. No other people or vehicles were involved in the accident.

A Metro officer was speaking by cell phone to the man during the chase and was on the phone with him when the man purposely drove off the highway and into the wash, Gutierrez said. He didn't know how police got the man's cell phone number.

The man first came to the attention of police around 2:20 p.m. when he was standing in front of a convenience store at Fort Apache Road and Durango Drive threatening to cut his throat with a large knife. Before leaving that area the man also said that if the police tried to stop him, he would kill them too, Gutierrez said.

During the chase, which never exceeded the speed limits, the man drove west on Tropicana Avenue, made a U-turn at Fort Apache, and then drove to the beltway, where he headed south.

The man obeyed all traffic laws during the chase, Gutierrez said.

"There were not excessive speeds ... He wasn't driving erratic. He was obeying the laws, he just wasn't stopping for police," Gutierrez said.

At Durango and the beltway the man drove over road spikes police laid for him. Even though the spikes punctured his tires, the man continued driving.

He was on the far right side of the road, driving partly on the dirt and passing vehicles on the right. Then around 2:50 p.m., just before a traffic signal at Rainbow, he turned off the road. The car struck a chain-link fence, pushing the fence over the car, and then crashed into the rocks below, Gutierrez said.