TRUCKEE -- A Grass Valley man died early Thursday after falling from the Union Mills Bridge on Interstate 80 following a carjacking in Nevada City and a high-speed police chase.
Curtiss B. Williams, 43, fell 70 feet to his death, landing near the Truckee River, although California Highway Patrol units cannot say whether he jumped or fell over the edge, CHP Public Affairs Officer Kirk Bromell said.
The incident started in Nevada City, where a Fast Taxi Cab Co. driver reported that a passenger threatened him with a hypodermic needle and forced him out of the car. Police later spotted the taxi in Truckee and pursued it onto I-80, where they laid spike strips and the vehicle crashed.
"He crashed into a retaining wall," Bromell said. "There were dust clouds and that sort of thing. Once we (deployed a spike strip), we kind of stayed back because we knew he wouldn't keep up those kind of speeds."
After the crash, pursuing officers approached the abandoned car and looked over edge where they saw the Williams' body, Bromell said.
In Nevada City, the man had asked to be driven to the Northridge restaurant, 773 Nevada St., according to Jackie Bartholow, another Fast Taxi driver.
"(The driver) says the man said, 'Get out. I don't want to kill you, I have a syringe,'" said Nevada City Police Sgt. Lorin Gage. "Fearful of his life, he jumped out of the car and walked a mile to town." The driver called police from a pay phone. Bartholow told The Grass Valley Union newspaper the driver was uninjured and is doing well.
The carjacking occurred at 2:55 a.m. and was reported at 3:20 a.m., Gage said.
The taxicab was next spotted in Truckee on Highway 89 near the CHP office and the intersection of Donner Pass Road. Nevada County dispatchers alerted area agencies to be on the lookout for the taxi company's maroon Dodge Caravan.
Patrolling officers pursued the minivan down Donner Pass Road, through Commercial Row toward the Highway 267 interchange. Bromell said the chase reached speeds of 60-80 mph before the driver turned north on 267 and then east on Interstate 80.
Once on the interstate, a waiting California Highway Patrol officer pursued the suspect while another unit rolled out a spike strip. The caravan's front tires deflated, precipitating the crash into the retaining wall, according to reports. Dispatch reports put the time of the crash at 4:06 a.m., and the discovery of the Williams' body shortly thereafter.