Driver, passenger arrested after short chase on North Side

Spokane County sheriff’s deputies arrested two men after a short chase in north Spokane this afternoon. Deputy Jeff Thurman tried to make a routine traffic stop on Francis Avenue and Post Street at about 2:50 p.m. The driver, Kevin L. Hodgson, 38, pulled over on Post but kept inching away in his Subaru without stopping, according Sgt. Dave Reagan, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. Thurman tried to block Hodgson with his patrol car, but Hodgson struck the patrol car and took off. The car then hit a parked Mercedes and drove through a front yard at the corner of Post Street and Dalke Avenue. Hodgson and a passenger, John R. Richmond, 31, fled the car; one man ran north on Wall, the other south. Hodgson was Tasered and arrested and the passenger was found a couple houses away shortly after. Hodgson had three outstanding warrants, according to the Sheriff’s Office; two for violating no-contact orders and one for violating a protection order. He faces new charges of attempting to elude a police vehicle, resisting arrest and two counts of hit-and-run collision. He was booked into Spokane County Jail. Richmond was cited for obstructing a police investigation and was released. A search of the car did not reveal anything, but interviews with the men indicated methamphetamine played a role in the incident, though none was found, police said. A witness, who did not want to be identified, said, “It was madness.”