A Norwood police officer pulled a driver from his burning car after the man crashed during a police chase early Tuesday morning. Ryan Brown’s car caught fire after crashing into a parked car and then into a pole on Montgomery Road about 2:30 a.m., police said. It shows Brown hitting a parked SUV near Cypress Way in Pleasant Ridge and then continuing north at speeds up to 80 mph until hitting a pole near Kincaid Road, police said. Brown, 36, of Mount Healthy, was knocked unconscious by the impact. The first arriving officer, Mike Jackson, approached Brown’s car with gun drawn but quickly noticed it was a different kind of emergency. Jackson pulled Brown out of the car and dragged him to safety. “They saved that suspect’s life,” Lt. Ron Murphy said.
The chase started about 2 ½ miles away in Norwood. Harvey was running radar when Brown passed close to his cruiser. “The subject kind of rode the double yellow line and almost sideswiped him, so that’s when Officer Harvey pulled out and advised dispatch that he was going to be stopping a vehicle for an investigation of OVI,” Murphy said. Harvey’s lights and siren fail to stop Brown. “We’re passing 5023 Montgomery. We’re still northbound. There’s still no traffic. Speeds are 50 now,” Murphy said as he described what was happening in the video. Brown hit a parked car, but that wasn’t the end of the chase. “The officers get out thinking they’re going to make an apprehension and then he backs up and drives away up the sidewalk,” Murphy said.
Norwood’s policy allows pursuits in OVI cases, but officers must take traffic volume, speed and safety into consideration.There was little traffic at 2:30 in the morning. “There were points in the video where it looks like the officers were in the 70s and possibly the 80s in this video, but based on their training and the supervisor on duty at the time, that was reasonable for the conditions they were faced with,” Murphy said. Brown underwent surgery at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He was charged with drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, OVI, failure to comply, OVI and driving under suspension. Police said they found 163 grams of marijuana in the vehicle along with a digital scale with marijuana residue on it.