LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A police chase ended Friday evening in the middle of a woman's front yard in Shively after a suspect allegedly stole a white Mercury Cougar from Dixie Auto Sales.
Betty Bennett said she woke up to what sounded like sirens in her yard. It was not a dream, they were really there.
"I came outside to see what was going on and when I came outside, I saw one policeman with his gun drawn and not only that, but there was two people on the ground and he was telling them to get down and to stay down," said Bennett.
A male and a female passenger were in the car, but have not been charged. The driver, William Derksen, ran in between houses and was caught a few houses down from where the car stopped.
Police said Derksen had been at Dixie Auto Sales earlier that day, waiving around an envelope, saying he had $10,000 and wanted to buy a car.
"He looked at this Impala and we went on a quick test drive and he just turned around about two blocks down the street and he came back and wanted to look at a minivan. So I'm thinking, something ain't right here; he's not acting right," said Robert Shaw, Dixie Auto Sales.
Shaw said he had just given the suspect keys to the Cougar when another employee asked him a pricing question.
"By that time, he had started it up and took off ," said Shaw.
However, what the suspect did not know was that all the cars have GPS devices in them.
"So Gail goes inside and gets on the computer and punches up the GPS ," Shaw explained. "So, we tracked them and told the dispatcher every location he was stopping at until they got him on Rockford Lane."
Shaw said it only took 14 minutes before the officers found him
A police officer fired a single gunshot, but nobody was injured. Louisville Metro Police Department's Public Integrity Unit is looking into the shooting by the officer.
Derksen will be in court Monday.
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William Derksen (Source: LMDC)
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