Two arrested after fleeing from police Saturday night

Gross
Gross

Two local felons who allegedly fled from Hot Springs police were arrested on multiple felony charges Saturday night after guns and drugs were reportedly found in their abandoned vehicle.

Joshua Edward Gross, 34, who is reportedly homeless, and James Robert Simpson, 27, of 608 Crescent St., were each charged with simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, punishable by up to life in prison, possession of a controlled substance, meth, with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to 30 years, possession of drug paraphernalia, punishable by up to 20 years, and felony fleeing, possession of a firearm by certain persons and possession of drug paraphernalia, each punishable by up to six years.

Simpson
Simpson

Simpson was also cited for careless or prohibited driving, driving a vehicle with expired tags, no driver's license, improper or unsafe lane change, failure to yield at an intersection and four counts of failure to obey a stop sign.

Both men were being held on zero bond and were set to appear Monday in Garland County District Court. Both had active warrants for their arrest and both were previously convicted of felonies in Garland County: Simpson in 2018 for possession of a controlled substance and Gross in 2017 for possession of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm by certain persons and fleeing. Gross also has a parole hold on him.

According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly before 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Officer Richard Davis attempted to make a traffic stop on a white Toyota 4Runner in the 2300 block of Central Avenue after noting the tags were expired. He activated his lights and noted the Toyota was occupied by two white males, later identified as Simpson, who was driving, and Gross, the front seat passenger.

The Toyota continued south on Central and pulled into a parking lot next to Oaklawn Street and started slowing down, but then accelerated suddenly through the lot onto Oaklawn as Davis activated his siren. The vehicle continued north on Central where Davis eventually terminated the pursuit due to Simpson's reckless driving, noting he ran several stop signs, reached speeds up to 60 mph, was weaving in and out of the turn lane and caused several "near head-on collisions" with other motorists.

Officers located the Toyota again at Silver Street and Malvern Avenue and attempted a traffic stop again, but the vehicle continued to flee to the intersection of Silver and Crescent where both suspects jumped out of the vehicle while it was still in motion and fled on foot. The vehicle finally came to rest after crashing into a tree at Silver and Maiden streets.

Simpson reportedly fled east toward the 600 block of Crescent while Gross fled west to the area of Silver and Crescent. A National Park Service K-9 officer arrived to assist and tracked Gross to a wooded area where he was taken into custody around 7 p.m. A second track was conducted and Simpson was located at his house at 608 Crescent shortly before 8 p.m.

The Toyota was searched prior to towing and officers located a backpack in the back seat which was found to contain a black handbag which had one large baggie and two smaller baggies with a total of 31.7 grams of what later tested positive for meth. The backpack also reportedly contained several empty baggies, an empty syringe, a set of digital scales and a loaded .22-caliber revolver.

In the front passenger side floorboard, officers reportedly located a loaded .380-caliber handgun.

Local on 08/20/2019

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