Car-Theft Suspect Hits 4 Vehicles, Including Cruisers

The report of a stolen Acura TL sedan came in to Fairfax County police at 9:25 a.m. yesterday. Soon located through a satellite alarm system, the sedan led three police cruisers on a roundabout chase through Old Town Alexandria and rammed four vehicles, sending one passenger to the hospital. The driver eventually bailed, leading police on a foot chase over fences and through back yards. He was tracked by helicopter and finally found hiding in the woods.

By noon, the gray 2003 Acura was virtually totaled.

Alexandria police arrested Anthony Talbert, who has no fixed address, and charged him with stealing an auto, four counts of hit-and-run and two counts of felonious assault on an officer. Talbert, 28, has a record in Northern Virginia reaching back nearly 10 years, court documents show, including arrests on drug charges, trespassing and breaking-and-entering. "His name is pretty well known to us," Alexandria police Lt. James Bartlett said. Police would not identify the Acura's owner.

The Alexandria chase, at up to 60 mph, unfolded after a 10:40 a.m. call to police from OnStar, a satellite-based navigation system installed in the Acura, Bartlett said. Commercials boast that OnStar calls for help when you can't and never has to ask for directions. The system had found the Acura in the Del Ray neighborhood, parked at Howell and Dewitt avenues.

Two police cruisers pulled up at the intersection, and officers spotted the suspect. Once Talbert saw them, Bartlett said, he "deliberately rammed" the front bumper of a cruiser in front of him and sped off. The two officers were given approval to chase him, which is unusual in Alexandria.

"We have a very restrictive pursuit policy," Bartlett said, adding that the city authorizes only a handful of chases each year. "We don't chase anyone for anything unless there's a crime of violence involved. And because this involved the intentional ramming of a police cruiser, it was an authorized pursuit."

Talbert raced south, turning onto Route 1, flying through red lights and stop signs along the way, Bartlett said. When he got to Duke Street and found traffic stopped at a red light, police said, he rammed a car ahead of him with such force that it flew forward into the intersection and the Acura's air bags deployed.

When Talbert still couldn't squeeze past, Bartlett said, he threw the Acura into reverse, backed up, rammed the car again and jumped the curb. As he turned right onto Duke Street, with air bags inflated, he broadsided a police supervisor's car and sped away.

The supervisor joined the chase -- Alexandria's policy allows up to three police cars to pursue a suspect -- as the driver careened onto King Street and then Braddock Road. At Van Dorn Street, Talbert ran a red light and smashed into the side of another car that was driving through the intersection, sending it spinning, police said. A passenger in that car was taken to a hospital with an injury that was not life-threatening, Bartlett said. After the crash, the Acura lurched to a stop under the Interstate 395 overpass.

Talbert ditched the heavily damaged car and raced into the nearby Stonegate townhouse complex, followed by several officers who chased him over bushes and fences as well as a K-9 team and a helicopter from Fairfax. Residents of the quiet complex said the swarming police cruisers, blaring sirens and circling helicopter gave the scene the feel of a movie.

About 11:40 a.m., police dogs found Talbert in a patch of woods near the complex's playground. "He was arrested without incident," Bartlett said.