High Speed Chase Results In Three Arrests

Suspects in Mar. 6 home invasion crash into former Pizza Hut

Humboldt Sentinel
3/14/09
By Sentinel Staff

EUREKA – A suspicious vehicle report early this morning led to the arrests of suspects Waymond Kelly and Michael Johns wanted in the home invasion robbery of just over a week ago.

EPD officers were dispatched to the 100 block of West Seventh Street at about 4:35 a.m. by an unnamed reporting party, which claimed that there was a white sedan parked and occupied by at least two subjects with hoods pulled up over their heads.

As units arrived on scene, they located a vehicle matching the description leaving the area, and when a traffic stop was attempted on the vehicle, the suspects fled. When it reached Fifth Street, EPD Public Information Officer Murl Harpham claimed in a release that it sped up to over 100 miles per hour.

The suspects’ quick get-away was cut short, however, when it tried to negotiate a “no brakes” turn onto R Street at such speeds. The vehicle swerved off the street and impacted the vacant building which once housed Pizza Hut. Three subjects fled from the vehicle, but were taken into custody a short distance away by responding units.

Kelly and Johns were booked into the county jail on parole holds. In addition, Kelly was charged with possession of a controlled substance. The driver, Nathan Aaron Ruptak, a 27-year-old Eureka resident, was booked on charges of evading the police, resisting arrest, and also kept on a parole hold.

Harpham noted the active status of the investigation into the home invasion on Mar. 6, and asked anyone with information on either incident to contact the EPD Criminal Investigations Section at (707) 441-4300.