A high speed chase out of Happy Valley ended with a manhunt in an Anderson neighborhood on Friday. Shortly after 4 in the afternoon deputies on Happy Valley Road near White Oak Drive saw a pickup truck being driven recklessly that almost had a collision with another vehicle. When they tried to pull it over the driver accelerated, reaching speeds of 100 miles an hour and passing cars on blind corners as he headed down the hill toward Highway 273. Someone on a bicycle was nearly hit. Once on Highway 273 with deputies sirens blaring the chase again reached 100 miles an hour southbound toward Anderson. As they approached Third Street, Anderson Police Officers were laying out a spike strip but the pickup headed straight towards them and they had to jump out of the way. The truck went west on Briggs Street and then the driver lost control and crashed into a fence at Diamond Street. Three of the occupants took off on foot, but 21-year-old Angelica Gilchrist waited for the deputies and was later released. A perimeter was set up and a K-9 was used. The dog picked up the trail and tracked it for about 150 yards, through bushes and over fences, to a home off Church Street, where 23-year-old Shane Voorhees was hiding under a trailer. 18-year-old Destiny Bell and 22-year-old Aaron Merrill were hiding under a shed next to the trailer. They were all arrested. The pickup was apparently a stolen vehicle that hadn’t been reported yet.
It was the second vehicle chase originating in Happy Valley on Friday. Just after 9:30AM Friday morning a Cal-Fire Officer tried to stop a jeep for reckless driving and ended up chasing it on Happy Valley Road to Coyote Lane, where the driver was taken into custody after the jeep became disabled in a field.