Wanted Cody man arrested after high-speed chase

Posted 8/22/17

Robert Pedro, 36, told officers afterwards that “he couldn’t tell if it was real or a video game, apparently referring to the pursuit,” said Park County Sheriff Scott Steward, reading from a deputy’s report.

“He was out of it,” …

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Wanted Cody man arrested after high-speed chase

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A Cody man allegedly led several police officers on a high-speed chase through Ralston and Powell before crashing on the Willwood Sunday afternoon.

Robert Pedro, 36, told officers afterwards that “he couldn’t tell if it was real or a video game, apparently referring to the pursuit,” said Park County Sheriff Scott Steward, reading from a deputy’s report.

“He was out of it,” Steward said of the suspect.

Pedro reportedly collided with two officers’ vehicles — the second being when he was brought to a stop by a Wyoming Highway Patrolman.

Pedro remained jailed on Monday while authorities mulled what charges to file against him.

A judge had issued a warrant for Pedro’s arrest last week after the Park County Attorney’s Office filed a pair of charges alleging he sold prescription medications adderrall and clonazepam to a Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation informant back in February.

On Sunday, Cody police received information that Pedro was driving to Powell; when a Wyoming Highway Trooper spotted him on U.S. Highway 14-A and attempted to arrest him on the warrant, Pedro refused to pull over, Steward said.

That was around 4:30 p.m.

A sheriff’s deputy in the area joined the pursuit, which at that point was below the speed limit, the sheriff said.

In Ralston, the trooper and deputy attempted to block Pedro in, but he went around the officers “and then the chase was on,” Steward said. Speeds reportedly hit “90 miles an hour or more,” he said.

Pedro then led authorities through Powell, including multiple residential areas, as a Powell officer joined the chase.

“[We] tried several times to deploy spike strips, but the speeds were just too fast for guys to be able to get in postion,” said Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt. “As he [the suspect] was in and up and down and around city blocks, the guys just didn’t have time to get the strips out.”

Police reports about the incident were still being compiled on Monday, but Eckerdt said his general understanding of the chase was that “it was all over” Powell.

“He [the suspect] was so random in where he was going,” Eckerdt said.

When the suspect — that is, Pedro — turned onto Coulter Avenue from Cheyenne Street, his back end “caught the driver’s side front corner of one of our cars, so nothing horrible, but busted headlight, dinged up fender and bumper,” Eckerdt said. That officer hadn’t even been involved in the pursuit, the chief said.

Eckerdt added that a trooper’s vehicle suffered greater damage when it brought Pedro to a stop at the southern end of Road 8, south of Wyo. Highway 295 in the Willwood area.

Steward said a deputy quickly arrived at the scene to assist the patrol with the arrest, while another deputy had been trailing the chase from a ways back.

At the time of Pedro’s arrest, “he was incoherent,” Steward said. After he was checked out by EMTs and booked into jail in Cody, Pedro indicated that he believed he was in Oregon, the sheriff said.

Pedro was scheduled to make his first court appearance this (Tuesday) morning in Cody.

Eckerdt said the department reviews its tactics after every pursuit. He added that, from what he overheard on the radio Sunday afternoon, “it seemed like everyone involved handled it really well as far as radio traffic and updates and communication was flowing — and it was flowing between agencies, which I thought was good to hear.”

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