Altamount Apartments on Enterprise Drive
ROHNERT PARK – An unemployed man led the California Highway Patrol on a high-speed chase at speeds up to 100 mph, before his arrest on Thursday night in the parking lot of a senior citizens apartment complex.
CHP officers were at the scene of a rollover collision on Freeway 101 near North San Pedro Road in San Rafael on July 13, when a report came in shortly before 9 p.m. about another accident nearby, involving a robbery of a driver stuck in freeway traffic.
The CHP said a Lake County man suspected of being high on drugs rammed into another vehicle, got out of his vehicle and approached the other driver, whom he punched and then allegedly stole his cell phone.
Another CHP officer later spotted a Ford Fusion matching the description of the bandit’s getaway car driving northbound in Novato, and unsuccessfully tried to pull over the driver, prompting a car chase on Freeway 101 and Highway 116. It ended in Rohnert Park when the suspect drove into a parking lot and parked outside the Altamount Apartments at 300 Enterprise Drive.
The suspect Neil A. Hart, 58, of Lakeport was arrested in the parking lot without further incident at 9:41 p.m., and transported to Marin County Jail, where he was booked on several felony and misdemeanor charges.
Hart is charged with robbery, assault with a deadly weapon or force, evading a police officer, driving with a suspended license, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, battery, and false imprisonment.
Police said that a transient man who was with Hart was an unwilling accomplice because he tried to get out of Hart’s vehicle after the freeway robbery occurred, but he was prevented from leaving by Hart. Police let the transient go.
Hart remains in custody in county jail in lieu of $75,000 bond.
