By Tatum Todd
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Police have released aerial footage and dashcam video of the 19-year-old driver who allegedly fled an attempted traffic stop over the Thanksgiving weekend, careened through the streets of Portland in a Ford Mustang and hit a car head-on, injuring the other driver.
The accused driver — Jeffery Hamilton Baker — now also faces additional charges in connection with a street takeover in Northeast Portland three days earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, when he allegedly struck and injured a pedestrian police initially weren’t able to locate.
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Police arrested Baker on Sunday after spotting him doing donuts and burnouts near Southeast 2nd Avenue and Alder Street, police said. Court records state that another person, later identified as Nathan Barnes, was hanging out of the window of the car.
When an officer tried to pull him over, Baker sped west on Southeast Alder Street, prompting police to call in their surveillance plane to track him from the air, court records show.
The newly released footage from Portland police shows the plane’s footage of the driver — who police identified as Baker — swerving past dozens of cars and weaving in and out of oncoming traffic. Baker also recorded his own dashcam video of the incident. In parts of the video that police released, the camera’s built-in speedometer reaches 86 mph, and a passenger who was riding with Baker at the time later told police that the Mustang hit speeds of up to 100 mph.
Court records and dashcam footage show that Baker evaded police for roughly 18 minutes before an officer tossed a spike strip in front of the Mustang.
Dashcam footage then shows the car running through a red light and hitting a Toyota Corolla. Court records state that the impact knocked the Corolla into another car, and police said that emergency responders took the Corolla driver to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Baker and his passenger fled the crash on foot, but police caught them shortly afterwards, court records state. When police interviewed Baker, they noticed that he was slurring his words and smelled of alcohol, court records allege.
He later said that he’d been drinking whiskey, court records show.
He faces charges of third-degree assault, failing to perform the duties of a driver to injured people, fleeing police, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and DUII in the Sunday incident, court records show.
Baker is also accused of a hit-and-run during a street takeover on Thanksgiving, and he’s set to be arraigned on Thursday afternoon on additional charges of third-degree assault and failing to perform the duties of a driver to an injured person in connection with that incident, police said.
Police told The Oregonian /OregonLive on Tuesday that the woman he allegedly hit left the scene and they didn’t locate her at the time.
On Thursday, police said she saw media reports about Baker and came forward.
Baker fled the scene after the alleged Thanksgiving hit-and-run, but police identified him through social media and later tried to arrest him at his home, police said.
But Baker was nowhere to be found, and he didn’t turn up until Sunday, when an officer spotted him Southeast 2nd Avenue and Alder Street, police said.
Court records show that Baker was previously convicted three times in three months earlier this year – of speeding in September, reckless driving in August and speeding and careless driving in June.
Court records also show that his driver’s license was suspended until 2034 at the time of Sunday’s incident.
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