A local felon was arrested on multiple charges late Sunday after allegedly fleeing a traffic stop, prompting a high-speed pursuit, and later breaking into another vehicle before being held at gunpoint by the vehicle's owners.
Antonio Jermaine Simuel, 31, who lists a Highland Park address, was taken into custody shortly before 11 p.m. and charged with felony counts of fleeing in a vehicle, breaking or entering and possession of a firearm by certain persons, each punishable by up to six years in prison.
Simuel was being held on a $7,500 bond and was set to appear Monday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly before 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Garland County sheriff's Deputy J.T. Dodge was working traffic enforcement when he saw a tan Chevrolet truck westbound on Airport Road near Pittman Road and noted the license plate light was not working.
He caught up to it and saw the license plate returned to a local insulation company so he activated his lights to make a traffic stop. The truck pulled into the parking lot of Dollar General, 2550 Airport Road, and stopped, but then a few seconds later sped away headed west on Airport.
The vehicle allegedly continued at a high rate of speed onto Sunshine Road, then onto North Moore Road and finally onto Delee Place where it pulled into a driveway in the 100 block and stopped. The driver, later identified as Simuel, jumped out, ran around the back of the house and into the woods.
The homeowner, 43, at the residence came out and stated Simuel had borrowed his truck to do a job and "called him saying he was in a police chase" just before pulling in. The homeowner stated a gun in the truck was his hunting rifle.
A female passenger, 32, in the truck stayed and told Dodge after he had pulled them over Simuel had noticed the rifle in the back seat and instead of stopping drove to his boss' house and then ran.
Deputies searched the woods, even using a K-9 at one point, to try to find Simuel, but were unable to locate him. Dodge and Sgt. Bill House retrieved a Remington 30-06 rifle from the back seat of the truck.
Around 10:15 p.m., deputies heard a disturbance coming from the woods in the area of the 5300 block of Sunshine Road and ran through the woods to check it out. They found two men and two women who were holding a black male matching the description of Simuel on the ground at gunpoint.
The group stated they had gone to lock their truck and found Simuel hiding in the floorboard in the back seat. They said they pulled him out and held him on the ground while they called 911.
Simuel was taken into custody without further incident. A computer check showed he was previously convicted of two felony counts of theft of property in Clark County in 2005, of felony theft by receiving in Clark County in 2011, and of felony possession of a controlled substance, meth, in Little Rock on May 21.
Local on 11/26/2019