Woman awakes, flees from cops

CARLSBAD — A 58-year-old woman accused of drunkenly driving her vehicle at a police officer and leading Carlsbad authorities on a 4-minute pursuit was arrested early Monday morning.

Bonnie Bass will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, driving under the influence and felony evading, according to the release from the Carlsbad Police Department.

At about 5:45 a.m. on July 12, a border patrol unit found a parked car that faced the wrong way on the northbound edge of the center median on Carlsbad Boulevard. The driver, later identified as Bass, was passed out inside and had possibly been drinking, according to the release. The border patrol unit then summoned the Carlsbad Police Department to the scene.

When an officer from the Carlsbad Police Department tried to make contact with Bass, officials said that she woke up, rolled up and locked her vehicle’s windows, and did not comply with the officer’s commands.

“Bass started her vehicle, and as she drove away, turned her vehicle towards the officer, forcing him to move or be struck by the vehicle,” according to the release, which was prepared by Lt. Paul Mendes of the Carlsbad Police Department.

Police then pursued Bass and chased her for about 4 minutes at speeds that reached 80 mph, traveling southbound on Carlsbad Boulevard and eventually entering the neighboring city of Encinitas.

When the suspect’s vehicle stopped, apparently due to her running out of gas, she continued to not follow officers’ orders and refused to exit her vehicle, according to authorities.

One of the vehicle’s windows then had to be broken to extract the driver, and resulted in an officer needing to be treated for glass injuries sustained during the entry, according to police.

Bass was arrested and transported to a hospital for complaint of injury from the window’s glass breakage.