A routine traffic stop in American Canyon just after midnight turned into a high-octane run up Highway 29 that ended with a wrecked BMW and a foot chase in the hills above St. Helena early Tuesday, authorities said.
According to American Canyon police, the incident kicked off around 12:30 a.m. when officers tried to pull over a 2006 BMW for vehicle-code violations on northbound Highway 29 at Donaldson Way. Instead of stopping, the driver hit the gas, reportedly topping 100 mph and racing through multiple Napa County jurisdictions, the Napa Valley Register reported.
Chase, spike strip and crash
Napa County Sheriff’s deputies rolled out a spike strip on Highway 29 near Darms Lane south of Yountville, which eventually blew a tire on the fleeing BMW and slowed the chase. Even with a flat, the car pushed on into St. Helena before slamming into a tree in the 2000 block of Main Street, which doubles as Highways 29 and 128. The driver then ditched the damaged vehicle and bolted into steep, brushy terrain west of the city, authorities said.
Arrest and booking
With help from a California Highway Patrol air unit, officers tracked the suspect in the dark and detained him at about 2:13 a.m. He was identified as 22-year-old Raul Mendoza Valencia of San Jose and was booked into Napa County Jail on suspicion of evading officers, leaving the scene of an accident and resisting arrest. Jail records showed he was being held without bail Monday afternoon, according to the Napa Valley Register.
Local response and safety
Authorities said Mendoza Valencia had five outstanding warrants in Santa Clara County and that multiple agencies jumped in on the pursuit, briefly tangling traffic along the valley’s main north-south artery. Spike strips and helicopter searches are not exactly rare on this stretch of Highway 29, either. Similar tactics have been used in prior pursuits in the area, as earlier local coverage has noted, according to KPIX/CBS San Francisco…