 Trade it and upgrade it now at Appalachian Wireless and receive up to $700 off when you trade your old, eligible device in and upgrade to a new iPhone 14 Pro Max or Samsung S23 Ultra on an unlimited Appalachian Advantage plan because we are you. We are Appalachian Wireless. On the night of Sunday, February 26th, a man was reported driving at high speeds in Jenkins. After the Jenkins Police Department was notified, they pursued but were unable to catch him despite their best efforts. Jenkins Police Chief James Stevens tells us more. Subject by the name of Jared Ratliff was observed driving recklessly at a high rate of speed without a seatbelt through our town or a midnight shift officer attempted to make a stop for the recklessness and the high rate of speed. Subject refused to stop. Our officer pursued him. The perpetrator went on over into Pike County. At that time, an electric county deputy was also en route and joined in the pursuit. They lost the subject at Kelly Mountain. He came out again and attempted to run them over while they were standing outside talking with the trooper. They again went in pursuit. He came up 805 through Jenkins where he was spike stripped. The strips did work. They flattened two of his tires. We continued to pursue him. He finally came in contact with a guard rail at the Dorton Elementary School and took off on foot. After Ratliff had fled the vehicle on foot, officers used non-lethal beanbag rifles to attempt to stop him. Now that he has escaped into the mountains, he is still at large and believed to be dangerous. At this time, then, he is still at large. We did warn a Pike County post and our own Letcher County units as well that he did say that he wanted to die, so he does have a weapon. Where we go from here is the officer that initiated the pursuit. He is going to be obtaining warrants for him and will be trying to serve those warrants as soon as we can. Last night, he did talk to me as far as saying, hey listen, I just want to die and I'm going to make somebody kill me and this kind of stuff, but he didn't charge towards me. He wasn't cussing at me or anything like that, so obviously, there's a little bit of sense still left to him. So maybe the report we've had from the years I've known him, maybe that'll help out, but we'll do what we have to do to keep our public safe to ourselves. Reporting from Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.