Driver arrested after chase through East Columbus

Deputies recovered a stolen truck and license plate after an incident yesterday morning in Columbus.

According to reports from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy noticed the driver of a pickup truck who appeared nervous and hiding his face from police at just before 8 yesterday morning at 10th Street and National Road. A check of the license plate revealed that the plate had been stolen in the county.

The deputy tried to pull the vehicle over, but instead the driver fled through a store parking lot and through southeastern Columbus, including driving through a bean field and onto the sidewalk. At Gladstone and McKinley avenues the drive jumped out and ran away,

leaving the truck in gear, which then rolled into a fence, causing minor damage.

The driver was captured a short distance away. The investigation revealed that no only was the plate stolen, but the truck had been stolen from Johnson County. The driver, 27-year-old Dominique Nichols of Columbus, was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital to be checked out, after swallowing methamphetamine, police say.

He was arrested on preliminary charges of resisting law enforcement in a vehicle, resisting law enforcement on foot, leaving the scene of an accident, theft of a vehicle, theft of a license plate and reckless driving.