Police end standoff with a distraught driver who attempted to elude officers

Police arrested and handcuffed a man who caused a standoff that closed Division Street in north Spokane on Tuesday evening.

The Washington State Patrol reported the driver was weaving on U.S. Highway 395 and refused to stop after a trooper gave chase and attempted to pull him over just before 8 p.m., said WSP Sgt. Tod Surdan. The man hit spike strips that popped his tires, but he kept going.

“He was driving for a while without tires,” Surdan said.

The bomb squad was called in to assist so that officers could use the robot. The man was yelling and could be heard blocks away.

“He wouldn’t get out of the vehicle,” Surdan said. “He was screaming and yelling and not communicating.”

After a lengthy standoff, members of the SWAT team broke out a window of the man’s pickup and set off CS gas inside, which caused the man to begin screaming. He sat on the car door frame briefly before he was pulled from the truck and handcuffed.

The man was identified as 38-year-old James Wheatley, of Loon Lake.

The Spokane Police Department and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office assisted WSP during the chase and standoff.