NewsCrime & Courts

Actions

More details emerge in Mission Valley high-speed chase

Posted at 12:50 PM, Jul 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-08 14:50:28-04
Matthew Harold VanValin, 29, of Missoula (photo credit: Missoula County Sheriff’s Office)

POLSON – We are learning more information about a high-speed police pursuit through the Mission Valley that landed a man in jail.

Lake County Sheriff Don Bell says that Matthew Harold VanValin, 29, of Missoula was arrested after a pursuit that began late Sunday night in Ronan and ended 36 miles later at the Grey Wolf Casino in Evaro.

Missoula County Sheriff’s Office deputies put stop sticks out near mile marker 10 on US Highway 93 North and flattened the tires on the stolen vehicle. A short foot pursuit ensued and VanValin was taken into custody.

No injuries were reported and the pursuit ended at about midnight.

Sheriff Bell states the pursuit started at about 11:15 p.m. when a Lake County deputy noticed a vehicle in Ronan that fit the description of a stolen vehicle out of Missoula.

The deputy verified the plate and when the vehicle came back stolen the deputy activated his emergency lights and siren. The driver of the stolen vehicle — later identified as VanValin — then fled the stop at a high rate of speed heading southbound out of Ronan.

The Ronan Police Department, CSKT Tribal Police, Montana Highway Patrol, and the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Lake County Sheriff’s Office in apprehending VanValin, according to Sheriff Bell.

VanValin is currently behind bars in the Missoula County Detention Center.