MENOMONIE, Wisconsin — A high-speed pursuit on Interstate 94 ended in a rest-area ditch and a field search on Friday afternoon, November 13, with all four suspects — every one of them from Florida — in custody less than an hour after their car was disabled, according to the Dunn County Sheriff's Office.
The chase began outside Dunn County. At about 4:48 p.m., the Sheriff's Office was notified that the Lake Hallie Police Department was pursuing a vehicle connected to a felony theft investigation, travelling westbound on Highway 312 — the North Crossing — toward Interstate 94, the Sheriff's Office said in a release signed by Sheriff Kevin Bygd.
Source: Dunn County Sheriff's Office
A Dunn County sheriff's sergeant intercepted the pursuit near Exit 59 on Interstate 94 and saw the suspect vehicle travelling at a high rate of speed while passing other motorists. The sergeant took up the pursuit westbound as the vehicle entered Dunn County, on one of the busiest trucking and travel corridors in the Upper Midwest — the interstate that links Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and the Twin Cities.
Dunn County deputies then successfully deployed a tire deflation device (TDD) — a spike strip laid across the roadway — on Interstate 94 near Menomonie. Dispatch recordings from the pursuit independently captured deputies reporting a successful spike deployment and the suspect vehicle crashing at the westbound rest area.
Source: CrimeRadar dispatch timeline
At about 5:01 p.m., barely thirteen minutes after Dunn County joined the chase, the suspect vehicle entered the westbound Interstate 94 rest area exit ramp, left the roadway and became disabled in the ditch. All four occupants fled the vehicle on foot, travelling north into the City of Menomonie.
Perimeter, CodeRED alert, K-9s and drones
The Dunn County Sheriff's Office, the Menomonie Police Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol established a perimeter around the search area. The Dunn County Emergency Communications Center issued a CodeRED emergency notification to subscribers in the vicinity, advising residents to lock their homes and vehicles while law enforcement searched for the fleeing individuals.
Two sheriff's K-9 units were deployed to track the suspects. At about 5:41 p.m., Sheriff's Office drone operators located four suspects in a field attempting to evade law enforcement, relayed their locations to officers on the ground and helped the K-9 teams coordinate the arrests.
One suspect fled southbound across all four lanes of Interstate 94 and was apprehended by a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper near Wakanda Park in Menomonie. The remaining three were apprehended by deputies in a field east of 22nd Avenue North, the Sheriff's Office said.
“All four suspects were taken into custody, and there is no ongoing threat to the community,” the Dunn County Sheriff's Office said. Residents were alerted during the search through the county's CodeRED mass-notification system.
Four Florida men, names withheld
The Sheriff's Office identified those arrested only by age and hometown, because the investigation is ongoing: a 24-year-old man from Lauderhill, Florida; a 23-year-old man from Lake Worth, Florida; a 24-year-old man from Lauderdale Lakes, Florida; and a 28-year-old man from Pompano Beach, Florida. All four were transferred to the Chippewa County Jail — the county where the pursuit began, in Lake Hallie. Their full identities were not released at this time due to the ongoing investigation by law enforcement, the release said.
Why four men from South Florida were in western Wisconsin in a vehicle wanted in a felony theft investigation is the central unanswered question of the case. The Sheriff's Office has not said what was allegedly stolen, whether the vehicle itself was stolen, or what charges each man will face; those details sit with the Lake Hallie Police Department's theft investigation and with prosecutors in Chippewa County.
For drivers on the I-94 corridor — including the many Punjabi and other long-haul truckers who run the Chicago-to-Twin Cities route daily — the incident was a reminder of how quickly a routine Friday run can be interrupted: a spike-strip stop and a foot search unfolded beside the interstate's westbound rest area in the late-afternoon light, with a public alert telling nearby residents to lock their doors until the search ended.
What happens next: the four men remain in the Chippewa County Jail while the felony theft investigation continues. Expect their names and formal charges to be released once investigators and prosecutors complete their initial review; the Sheriff's Office said there is no ongoing threat to the community in the meantime.