A high-speed chase Saturday morning ended when the fleeing driver exited his vehicle in front of the Mountain Home Walmart’s west entrance, entered the store with a law enforcement officer in pursuit, and was ordered to the ground at Taser point at the end of the self-checkout lane.According to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office incident report, the event began with a 9-1-1 caller advising the suspect, 36-year-old Duane Smith Stamper of Mountain Home, was at her residence in violation of a protection order yelling to see her daughter.Officers dispatched to the residence along Wildwood Circle were advised in route the suspect had fled the scene. Upon turning onto Wildwood, one officer encountered the fleeing vehicle traveling toward his patrol unit.
The driver, upon seeing the activated blue lights of the patrol unit, continued traveling toward it, then swerved right then left, leaving the roadway and missing the deputy’s vehicle.
The driver then accelerated at a high rate of speed, attempting to elude the officer, turning right onto County Road 30, then onto Highway 62/412, running a stop sign at an intersection.
The driver continued at a high rate of speed in an easterly direction, nearly striking a vehicle that had merged into his right-hand lane of traffic. The driver drove up a curb to avoid a collision. Upon reaching the intersection of Rawlings Lane and Highway 62/412, the vehicle entered the Walmart parking lot. The vehicle continued at a high rate of speed through the parking lot, stopping at the west entrance, where the driver exited his car and ran inside.
One of the two officers chased the suspect and confronted him at the end of the self-checkout lane ordering him to the ground at Taser point.
Stamper was taken into custody, transported to the Baxter County Detention Center and charged with multiple misdemeanor offenses. Those offenses include obstructing governmental operations stemming from his behavior at the Detention Center where he had to be restrained by three officers and later stunned by a Mountain Home Police officer.
Stamper’s bond was set at $1,645.
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