A woman has been arrested after allegedly leading Lewis County Sheriff personnel, including Sheriff Rob Snaza, on a chase through downtown Chehalis during Tuesday’s lunch hour.
At approximately 12:21 p.m. on March 30, Snaza attempted to stop a vehicle that was “at a dead stop for no apparent reason in the middle of the roadway” near Safeway in Chehalis, according to Dusty Breen, chief of the field operations bureau at the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
The vehicle failed to yield to emergency equipment and “continued to drive erratically, failing to stop at red lights and stop signs through downtown Chehalis during lunch hour traffic,” he said.
The vehicle went north on North Market Boulevard, traveled through the downtown business area and then looped southbound. Breen and another deputy joined the pursuit when the vehicle turned down Main Street from North Market Boulevard near Cascade Avenue, according to Breen, with the other deputy taking over the pursuit in a marked vehicle.
The eluding vehicle failed to yield as it crossed over the railroad tracks on Main Street and began to drive into the oncoming lane of travel up to the intersection of State and Main, where officers were able to box the vehicle in and force the driver to stop.
The driver and vehicle’s sole occupant, Yanira Naribel Portillo Salinas, 38, currently listed as a transient, was arrested with assistance from the Chehalis Police Department, as she was non-compliant with commands to exit the vehicle and continued to try and drive forward although blocked in.
Portillo Salinas is in the process of being booked into the Lewis County Jail for attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle.
