A man is thankful to be alive after trying to elude the Dennison Police Department Tuesday evening.
Glenn D.W. Skinner was running from Dennison officers when Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s deputies were requested to help with pursuit along Eastport Road SE around 10:33 p.m. The vehicle pursuit turned foot pursuit on the cold, wet night in the snow, ice and on grass with a temperature of 9 degrees.
Deputy Chris Edwards responded, he was made aware that Skinner crashed his vehicle into a telephone pole in the 3400 block of Eastport Rd. SE, leaving the suspect to flee the vehicle on foot and continue the pursuit, according to the initial report by the sheriff’s office.
Deputy Edwards, who was assigned to the K-9 unit for the night, then deployed K-9 Bruno to assist with tracking Skinner.
K-9 Bruno began tracking the scent of Skinner around the perimeter of St. Mary’s Cemetary and into an agriculture field. The K-9 then indicated a fresh human odor near the Stillwater Creek.
As they approached the creek, visible footprints on the ice were seen, causing authorities to follow the prints from the creek bank for their own safety. After about 100 yards of tracking the prints on the ice, Deputy Edwards said it appeared “the foot prints went into a hole on the ice and appeared that the suspect fell through the ice twice.”
EMS and Fire personnel were requested to the scene while law enforcement continued to search for the suspect to no avail. A few minutes later, Deputy Brian Hale and Deputy Dave Digenova, radioed that they located Skinner laying on the ice of the creek but unconscious.
The report states that after removing Skinner from the ice and dragging him to St. Route 250, EMS began taking measures to transport him due to severe hypothermia.
JMN is waiting to learn what charges are going to be filed against Skinner by the Dennison Police Department, since it was their pursuit to begin with. He did have three active felony warrants for his arrest from the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office.
After being medically cleared from the hospital, Skinner was transported to the Tuscarawas County Jail by Dennison Police without further incident.