By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
A Grand Rapids man is charged with stealing a van, threatening the van’s owner with a stolen firearm, leading police on a high-speed chase and crashing into parked vehicles before he was apprehended as he attempted to flee on foot.
Richard Grass, 53, is in the Isabella County Jail after his arraignment on multiple felonies.
Information from the police reported he was charged with stealing a 1999 white Econoline van that was parked at Olson Tire on Pickard in Mt. Pleasant on Tuesday January 11th.
On the following Friday, the van’s owner spotted the stolen van in the Meijer parking lot, walked up to the vehicle and asked Grass where he got the it. Grass responded by pulling out a 44 Magnum revolver and the vans owner went back to his vehicle and called 911.
Glass reportedly left the parking lot heading east, when a Tribal Police officer spotted the van on Leaton south of Pickard and tried to stop him, chasing him through the Soaring Eagle Casino parking lot and via a service road, back on Leaton where Glass headed north on Leaton, ran the red light at M-20 barely missing other vehicles and continued to flee north at speeds over 100 miles per hour.
Reportedly he ran a four-way stop at Beal City Road and then crashed into a couple of parked cars near Shepherd Road, where he got out of the van with the revolver (later discovered to be cocked and loaded) in his hand where he jumped out of the van and ran across a backyard. He was “tackled” by officers as he reached a tree line and arrested.
Police discovered that the revolver and three other guns found in the van, were stolen.
Grass was charged Tuesday with three five-year felonies: unlawful driving away, carrying a concealed weapon, and third-degree fleeing and eluding police; one four-year felony – felonious assault; one two-year felony – resisting arrest; and a misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended license.
He is scheduled for his next court hearing on February 3rd.