A 24-year-old man faces at least 10 preliminary charges related to his decision to flee from a traffic stop Thursday afternoon northwest of Brownstown, police report.
Lakota Kain Snyder of Seymour faces a Level 5 felony charge of armed robbery; a Level 6 felony charge of residential entry; two Level 6 felony charges of auto theft; and a Level 6 felony charge of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle.
He also faces misdemeanor charges of operating while never having received a driver’s license, refusal to submit to a chemical test, possession of marijuana/hashish, possession of paraphernalia and resisting law enforcement.
Snyder also was wanted on a Jackson Circuit Court warrant, issued Sept. 17, for contempt for failing to appear for a Sept. 16 pretrial conference for a charge of operating while intoxicated endangering a person, according to court records. That charge is a misdemeanor.
The incident that led to Snyder’s arrest began at 4:12 p.m. Thursday when Brownstown Police Department Officer Jessiah Watts initiated a traffic stop on a passenger car, later found to have been reported stolen, near county roads 300N and 225W, according to a news release from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
After the vehicle stopped, the driver got out of the vehicle, while the passenger — later identified as Snyder — jumped from the passenger seat and into the front seat and sped away, police said.
Watts pursued the vehicle north on County Road 225W for about a half-mile before it left the road and traveled through several fields and yards. Snyder then left the vehicle and fled on foot into a cornfield with Watts pursuing him, police said.
A short time later, Brownstown Police Chief Tom Hanner and Assistant Chief Joe Kelly along with Sheriff Rick Meyer and other county officers, including Chief Deputy Dustin Steward, Lt. Adam Nicholson, detectives Tom Barker and Mark Holt and Officer Ben Rudolph, arrived in the area. State troopers, conservation officers and officers with the Crothersville Police Department also were involved in the pursuit and arrest of Snyder.
After abandoning the vehicle, Snyder ran west to County Road 250W and entered a home, where he indicated to a person there that he had a gun and then took a vehicle, police said.
The newly stolen vehicle was spotted by an officer, which led to another pursuit. That pursuit ended near county roads 760N and 700W. At the end of the pursuit, police cars driven by Hanner and Rudolph had been damaged.
Snyder was arrested and taken to the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown, where he is being held without bond pending his initial court appearance.
A Level 5 felony is punishable by one to six years in prison upon conviction.