A Council Bluffs man is being held in the Pottawattamie County Jail after a high-speed chase on Interstate 80 early this morning. Chief Deputy Sheriff Jim Matthei says the suspect, 38-year-old Daniel Duane Monk, was arrested just after 3 A.M.
Matthei says a deputy was on patrol in the area of Highway 6 and McPherson in Council Bluffs, when he came upon a suspicious vehicle. After checking on the empty vehicle and an adjacent business to make sure it wasn’t being burglarized, he heard a motorcycle take off from the vicinity at a high rate of speed.
Matthei says the deputy, thinking the individual may have been casing or attempting to break into the business, took off in pursuit of the cycle. Just before the chase ended, Deputy Marc Freeman clocked the cycle traveling at speeds of up to 110-miles an hour.
Matthei says Monk got onto I-80 at Highway 6 and was traveling west towards Omaha, when, at about the 4-mile marker, he went down an embankment. Freeman lost sight of the motorcycle, got out of his cruiser and, when he looked down the hill, saw Monk still riding down the embankment.
When Monk reached the bottom of the hill, he dropped the cycle and took off on foot, but was quickly apprehended. Monk complained of shortness of breath and ankle pain, but refused medical treatment. He faces numerous charges, including: driving while disqualified or revoked, two counts of driving under suspension, no insurance, eluding, reckless driving, excessive speed and operating an unregistered vehicle.
By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic