Video shows trooper firing rifle to shoot out tires of semi that rammed police units in Hope

HOPE, Ark. — Arkansas State Police dash camera video of the Oct. 12 tractor-trailer chase through Hope is now online. It shows a State Police sergeant firing a rifle from his moving patrol unit to shoot out both front tires of the truck as it ran east on Interstate 30 at about 70 mph.

The video was posted online along with the narrative from the State Police incident report. It comes nearly three weeks after the chase, in which the semi struck an Arkansas Highway Police unit and a State Police unit.

Victor Joel Colon, 29, of Punta Gorda, Florida, the driver, remained in the Hempstead County Detention Center on Saturday. His bond is $150,000, according to the jail roster, which lists his first court date as Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. He is held on three counts of aggravated assault, fleeing, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. As of Saturday, no felony case had been filed against him in Hempstead County Circuit Court, state court records show.

What the report says

State Police Sgt. Kyle Peek wrote in his narrative that Troop G dispatch called at 10:44 a.m. to say Highway Police were chasing a white tractor-trailer west on I-30. Dispatch told units the truck had fled from Highway Police in Saline County earlier in the day. After it took Exit 31 and turned onto North Hazel Street, it sideswiped a Highway Police unit, Peek wrote.

Peek was driving north on the Arkansas 29 bypass, the narrative says, when he heard over the radio that the truck had turned onto Commerce Boulevard and then headed back toward the interstate. It got back on I-30 going east. Trooper Adrienne Colvin became the lead unit, and Highway Police said they were dropping out of the chase. Peek became the second unit.

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The truck moved into the left lane and kept going east at 70 mph, Peek wrote. He took his issued rifle from the passenger seat and decided he would try to disable the front tires if he got a safe opportunity.

“Given the circumstances of the situation specifically that the driver was clearly not going to stop and had already shown he was not afraid to ram or damage a police unit during his flight I felt this was my only option to end the pursuit,” Peek wrote.

He pulled up on the passenger side of the truck, rested his rifle on his side mirror and fired three rounds at the front passenger tire, missing, according to the narrative. He pulled back up and fired two more rounds, which hit the tire. The tire went flat, but the driver kept going east at 70 mph in the right lane.

About four miles later, Peek moved up on the driver’s side. He fired three rounds at the front steer tire without disabling it, then five more that deflated it, the narrative says. That made 13 rounds in all.

The dash camera video shows the truck rolling down I-30 with its front tires coming apart before it pulls onto the grass shoulder, where troopers took the driver into custody. Photos posted with another upload of the video show the bent push bumper and crumpled front end of a Highway Police Chevrolet Tahoe, as well as the truck’s shredded front tires.

No injuries were reported over the radio during the chase.

Charges listed on a jail roster are preliminary and may change. Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.