Suspect arrested after wild pursuit in Marion County

OCALA, Fla. (WOGX FOX 51) - Ocala police officers arrested Jonathan Holmes and Steven Sanchez, after crashing a car into an OPD cruiser in Ocala. The crumpled police car sat not far from where this crazy chase started.

“This all started with a simple traffic stop and quickly escalated,” explained Meghan Shay, OPD Spokeswoman.

Police say Holmes and Sanchez were in a white Dodge Challenger, speeding-off when the cop turned on his lights. Police say Sanchez tried to bail out of the car, and learned the hard way it was a bad idea. “Running over his passenger as he was trying to get out of the vehicle,” Shay said.

Police say Holmes sped north on 27th Avenue. That’s where the car chase came to an end. The place police say Holmes smashed the car into a fire hydrant, jumped out, and took off running into the nearby woods.

Nearby College Park Elementary school went into lockdown while police searched for Holmes. Eventually police dogs tracked him in the woods, taking him down. Afterwards, Holmes went to the hospital before going to jail. Sanchez also went to the hospital for his injuries. The officer in the car Holmes hit wasn't injured.