An auto occupied by at least two persons eluded Big Sandy police officers and Upshur County sheriff’s deputies during a high-speed chase in Upshur and Wood Counties last Wednesday morning, said Big Sandy Police Sgt. Wade Walters.

The chase, which Walters said involved speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, was one of two high-speed pursuits involving East Texas authorities that day. As reported in Saturday’s Mirror, a chase through Camp, Titus and Morris Counties ended in the arrest of a suspect in the armed robbery of a Gilmer finance company.

Walters said Tuesday he initiated the chase which began at a Big Sandy convenience store when officers recognized one of the car’s occupants as wanted on felony drug charges.

The incident, which covered an estimated 7 to 8 miles over about 20 minutes, ended when the fleeing car crashed through a barbed-wire fence on an oiltop road and went into a field, Walters said.

“We lost sight of them, and that was the end of it,” said Walters, who said officers aborted the chase. He said four or five units had pursued the fleeing white 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix after officers identified one of the occupants as 31-year-old Wood County resident Arreon Noel Weatherby, who remained at large Tuesday.

Authorities aren’t sure whether Weatherby was driving or a passenger, said Walters. The officer asked that anyone with information on the case call Big Sandy police at 636-4200 or the Sheriff’s Office at 843-2541.

The car’s license tag is MVM 528, and it “should have some pretty extensive damage to the front end,” Walters said. Parts were flying off the vehicle during the chase, he said.

The sergeant said authorities pulled into the parking lot of the Sandy Center convenience store at the intersection of U.S. 80 and Hwy. 155 North. When an occupant of the car spotted the marked Big Sandy police unit, he took off northbound on Hwy. 155 and was “driving very recklessly on the wrong side of the road” during the pursuit, Walters said.

Walters said he, another Big Sandy police unit driven by Lt. Van Burr, and two or three units from the Sheriff’s Office were involved in the chase, which turned from Hwy. 155 left onto FM 2911 inside Big Sandy. Right past the Wood County line, he said, the car turned right onto FM Road 1795, then onto Catalpa Road (possibly back in Upshur County), and then onto various other roads in the two counties.