After evading police in a brief car chase last week, a man was arrested Tuesday for car theft, among other charges, according to a Juneau Police Department press release.
At about 9:41 a.m. Oct. 10, a Juneau business owner called police and said one of his employees was driving a company car and had left it running in front of a business on the 2200 block of Trout Street. When the employee came back out of the business, the car was gone.
The owner then saw the car, a black 2004 Chevrolet Silverado, being driven inbound on Egan Drive, according to the release. The owner followed the car but lost it when the car made a u-turn by Channel Vista Drive and headed outbound.
Police saw the Silverado turning onto Vanderbilt Hill Road from Egan Drive and chased it, according to the release. Police estimate the driver was driving 75 miles per hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone, and they decided to stop chasing the car at the intersection of Glacier Highway and Anka Streets. This was due to unsafe speeds, according to the release.
At about noon that day, police found the Silverado abandoned in the 5500 block of Glacier Highway. Officers found surveillance footage of the area where the car was parked and saw a man getting out of the vehicle.
Officers identified him as 30-year-old Taylor Hudson Cope, according to the release. Police records showed that Cope had a $15,000 felony arrest warrant out of Florida for eluding police and regularly driving with a revoked license, the release alleges. Lt. Krag Campbell said it’s not sure where Cope lives. Campbell said Cope appears to have just come to Juneau recently and that it seems like Cope has “been around a bit.”
Nearly a week later, at about 3:47 p.m. Tuesday, JPD got a tip that Cope had entered a business in the 1800 block of Shell Simmons Drive. Officers arrived and saw Cope as he was exiting a room.
There was a brief struggle and officers had to use their Tasers on Cope, police say. After that, Cope cooperated with the officers and was taken to Lemon Creek Correctional Center.
Cope was charged with first-degree vehicle theft, first-degree failing to stop at the direction of an officer and resisting arrest, according to the release. Cope was held without bail, police say, and JPD is still trying to learn whether Cope’s Florida warrants require him to be sent back to the Sunshine State.
According to electronic court records, Cope was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Juneau.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
