An unidentified Michigan man has been missing since Monday after diving into a river to evade police during a chase captured on an officer’s bodycam.
The local police noted in a Tuesday Facebook post that the chase began when the police tried to stop the suspect’s motorcycle over an alleged license plate violation.
The suspect’s motorcycle broke down during the chase, and he continued to flee on foot despite repeated orders to stop, the post read. According to the post from Kalamazoo Public Safety, the chase ended when the suspected waded into the Kalamazoo River “to avoid being arrested” and the currents of the river “pushed him downstream,” where police saw the man “go under water” and not resurface.
In the bodycam footage of the incident, an officer can be heard stating that the suspect was in danger of hypothermia.
Authorities attempted to rescue the individual but were unsuccessful. “KDPS [Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety] exhausted all efforts throughout the evening using the Kalamazoo County Dive team, KDPS rescue boats and aviation unit, to find the subject. The Dive team and KDPS have resumed a search this morning along the river,” the post stated. (RELATED: Video Shows Pig Named Albert Einswine Leading New Jersey Police On Wild Chase)
A spokesman for the police confirmed to the New York Post that police were still searching for the unknown man as of Wednesday.
This unidentified suspect is far from the first to come up with a creative and dangerous way to escape police.
In Nov., a vehicle theft suspect tried to evade Miami Dade police officers by hanging off an overpass. A quick thinking police officer prevented the man from jumping by grabbing his hand, and the chase ended with the suspect in custody.
In September, a carjacking suspect ran through a swarm of wasps while trying to flee police in Seattle. Both the pursuers and the pursued were stung, but ultimately the suspect was caught and arrested.