Argument with girl sends man on collision course Car chase ends on Elm Street after several crashes

BANGOR – An argument over a girl giving her boyfriend a ride escalated into a car chase, crash and foot pursuit Sunday.

The events began around 2 p.m. when Bobby L. Harvey, 20, of Levant and his 17-year-old girlfriend got into an argument that grew into a fight in front of the girl’s Fruit Street home, said Bangor police Officer Erik Tall.

Harvey’s license was suspended and he wanted his girlfriend, with whom he had been staying, to give him a ride. But she didn’t want to, Tall said.

During the fight, Harvey punched, pushed, pulled and choked the girl, the officer said.

When police received a call at 2:15 p.m. Harvey had left the home in his 1991 Dodge Neon. Detective Paul Colley of the Bangor Police Department was the first to spot the vehicle on Garland Street and attempted to pull the car over as it turned onto Elm Street.

“At first he pulled over immediately,” said Colley. “I had just got done calling in to see if he had any weapons on him and was about to get out of the car when he put it in drive and took right off.”

Colley followed with his lights and sirens on, and Harvey stopped again, the detective said. Harvey took off for a second time as Colley again prepared to get out of his vehicle. After a brief chase, the red Neon stopped once more.

“The third time I pulled him over, he floored it in reverse back by me, back towards Garland Street intersection,” Colley said.

Colley said the vehicle stopped at the intersection of Garland and Elm streets after the officer had turned his vehicle around. “Then he came flying back at me.”

As the vehicles glanced off each other’s left front bumpers, Harvey’s vehicle shot over a curb and nearly hit the porch of an Elm Street home, Colley said.

Harvey came out of the driveway of the home and hit the driver’s side rear end of a Chevrolet Silverado truck in front of 57 Elm St.

Jim Green, who owns the truck and lives nearby, was able to see some of the action through his living room window.

“He got out of his car, stopped for a second, paused some more, looked around and then started running,” Green said.

As Colley fought to get his damaged cruiser door open, Harvey took off through the back yard of an Elm Street home, heading toward Forest Avenue. “When I finally saw him, he was scaling a fence,” the detective said.

Tall and Officer Tyler Leighton spotted Harvey running four blocks away on Coombs Street. He was caught five blocks away from the scene of the accident, on Mount Hope Avenue, where Maine State Police Trooper Kyle Ouellette caught up with the fleeing Harvey.

“Once he was cut off he just gave up,” said Tall.

He was arrested Sunday afternoon and charged with Class D domestic assault, Class B aggravated assault with a weapon (vehicle), Class D eluding a police officer, Class D driving to endanger, and Class C failure to stop for a police roadblock.

Additional charges likely will be filed for driving with a suspended license and violation of probation, said Tall.

Harvey was being held at the Penobscot County Jail. He is to make his initial court appearance today.

Bail had not been set as of Sunday night.

Harvey later passed a sobriety test and did not appear to be under the influence of any substances, said Tall.

“I assume he just panicked,” said Tall. “Why does anybody run?”