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OREM — An Orem man was arrested Tuesday after police say he nearly rammed into an officer's patrol car twice and led officers on a high speed chase through neighborhood streets.
Brigham Joseph Aston, 26, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of two counts of attempted assault targeting law enforcement, failing to respond to an officer's signal to stop, reckless driving and not having vehicle registration.
The investigation began about 8:20 p.m. Monday when an Orem police officer responded to the area of 900 South and 800 East to conduct a welfare check on a man who had been in the back of an SUV for approximately seven hours, according to a police booking affidavit.
But as the officer approached, the driver, Aston, allegedly sped away.
"I attempted to catch up to the vehicle and due to it traveling at a high rate of speed, I wasn't able to catch up to the vehicle," the officer wrote in the affidavit.
Shortly after entering Provo, Aston made a U-turn and continued to speed "directly toward my vehicle. At this point I believed the vehicle was going to ram my marked patrol unit head-on. The vehicle eventually veered last second, missing me, and returned to Orem on 800 South Street," the affidavit says.
The officer briefly stopped chasing Aston, but located the SUV again in a dead-end street near 620 S. State.
"I pulled in front of the suspect vehicle again in an attempt to conduct a high-risk traffic stop, however I couldn't exit the vehicle fast enough before the vehicle drove forward, and I believed it would ram me again but went up the curb, narrowly missing my vehicle a second time," according to the affidavit.
At that point, a second officer joined the pursuit, which went nearly 10 more miles.
"During the pursuit, the vehicle ran multiple red lights, stop signs, went into oncoming traffic, failed to maintain (its) lane, traveled well above the posted speed limits, and hit speeds of over 100 mph in a marked 50 mph zone. Due to safety of all involved and the public, the pursuit was terminated. This occurred in residential areas along with the main roads throughout the southeast side of Orem/northwest side of Provo," the arrest report states.
Officers went back to the neighborhood Tuesday where the vehicle was originally spotted, and reported finding it nearby, parked in front of Aston's residence. He was taken into custody without further incident a short time later.
