News in Brief: Traffic stop yields wanted felon

By Catherine Bratic     10/9/08 7:00pm

A routine Rice University Police traffic stop turned into a criminal chase when the car's driver turned out to be a wanted felon. A Rice University Police Department patrol stopped a car going the wrong direction down College Way on Sept. 28, Chief Bill Taylor said. After looking up information about the driver, Drake Young, the officers discovered that he had a felony warrant for a parole violation in Fort Bend County. The officers handcuffed Young and transported him to the RUPD station. While being transferred from the car to the building, Young took off running west down University Blvd. RUPD called the Houston Police Department for backup and were soon joined by a helicopter crew and a canine team, Taylor said.

"He basically went through a couple of backyards," Taylor said. "By now he'd gotten his handcuffs around to the front - apparently he was very agile - and was jumping fences."

Young was found by one of the HPD dogs under a back porch at 2211 Watts St. and was taken into custody by HPD. RUPD then filed an additional warrant for felony escape.

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"The dogs basically encouraged him to come out," Taylor said. "He got a little chewed up by one of them, but he'll be fine.

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