A high-speed chase through Ouachita County has put a spotlight on one of law enforcement’s most difficult and gut-wrenching scenarios: a fleeing suspect who, unknown to the pursuing troopers, had young children riding along for the ride. Arkansas State Police are now making clear that anyone willing to use a child as an inadvertent passenger during a police pursuit will face the full weight of the state’s legal system, and the agency’s top commander isn’t mincing words about it.
On Sunday, May 24, 2026, at around 3:15 in the afternoon, an Arkansas State Police trooper attempted to stop a 2012 Toyota Highlander for a traffic violation in Camden. The driver did not pull over. What followed was a pursuit that reached speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour, involved oncoming traffic violations, and ended with a rollover crash dangerously close to live electrical wires. Inside the vehicle were four children, the youngest just four months old, none of whom the trooper had any reason to suspect were there.
The driver, Tyrice Fletcher, 28, of El Dorado, was taken into custody and transported to the Ouachita County Detention Center. Troopers searching the vehicle found a defaced firearm and illegal marijuana. The charges that followed were extensive, covering everything from felony fleeing and illegal weapons possession to four separate counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of no child passenger restraint. It is the kind of charge sheet that takes a while to read aloud in court…