Story Created: Apr 7, 2009 at 5:38 PM MDT
Story Updated: Apr 8, 2009 at 1:36 PM MDT
Boise Police say the suspect is Jarrod L. Devaney, 31, a Meridian man currently wanted on felony charges. Boise Police had been looking for the Devaney and saw him leave his east Boise home at about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
But officials say Devaney took police on a chase toward Elmore County - at times reaching speeds of 100 miles per hour. At other times, he was at a slow crawl.
Both directions along I-84 were shut down as police tried to negotiate with the suspect. Traffic was backed up for hours.
"I jumped on the freeway and saw all the cops go by," one witness said in her vehicle.
After 6 hours of negotiations, officers say it appeared talks were failing, and the suspect was again making statements threatening to hurt himself or officers.
Authorities say they made the decision to deploy tear gas into the suspects vehicle at bout 12:30 a.m.
Officers with the SWAT team used a 37 mm launcher to simultaneously deploy wooden batons and tear gas into the suspect's SUV. The wooden batons break the car windows, allowing the tear gas to enter the passenger compartment.
When the tear gas was deployed, the suspect quickly accelerated in the Tahoe. Officers had laid down spike strips on the interstate ahead of the suspect vehicle. The suspect drove over the spike strips and continued on, however, tire damage forced the vehicle to slow.
Immediately after the suspect vehicle stopped, authorities say Devaney pointed the weapon toward approaching officers. The suspect appeared to accidentally drop the weapon and began to reach down for it. Officers were near to the suspect vehicle at this time and the suspect made the decision to surrender.
Inspecting the weapon after the suspect's arrest, the weapon was found to be a BB gun made to look like a real handgun.
Devaney has been charged with eluding police, aggravated assault, resisting and obstructing officers and grand theft from his outstanding warrant.
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