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One arrested following Grand Rapids Police chase

Posted at 4:37 PM, Sep 11, 2014
and last updated 2014-09-11 23:07:05-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- One person was arrested Thursday after a police chase that ended in on Grand Rapids' Northeast side.

Law enforcement officials set up a perimeter in the area of Knapp, Prospect and Elmwood Thursday following suspicious activity at Paul Medawar Fine Jewelry, 4518 Plainfield Ave. NE.

The Kent County Sheriff’s department went to the jewelry store, but the suspect had already left. However, they had the suspect’s vehicle description and the direction he was heading.

The suspect's car crashed into a red Pontiac parked on the side of the road, and the suspect jumped out before it crashed and started running away.

“Well I was sitting on my friend’s porch, and we heard a bunch of sirens. We got off the front step, and we saw a bunch of police officers coming, and they were chasing after a man,” said 12-year-old Donovan Potts, who saw the whole incident unfold.

“So all the police cars stopped at once, and kind of blocked off the road, so the guy couldn’t come through,” he said.

Police surrounded the neighborhood and shortly arrested the 23-year-old male, but Potts gave police some information that could be alarming to the rest of the neighborhood.

“We are pretty sure we saw the guy with a gun. He was holding something black, and it looked like the shape of a gun,” he said.

Deputies demanded a nearby school, Apple Tree Christian Learning Center, be closed. They took their K-9 unit out to try to locate the weapon. Authorities have not found the weapon, but say an unknown weapon could still be out there, and residents should be aware so it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

Investigators are still looking into a motive, and are telling people to check their roofs and trash bins, since those are places the weapon could have been ditched.