A 30-year-old Richfield man is in custody after allegedly pointing a gun at a White Bear Lake gas station and then speeding off in a stolen Kia Sedona, touching off an 18-mile pursuit that stretched west across I-694 into Anoka before deputies forced the minivan to a stop. Jaime Alexis Escoto Rodriguez was arrested at the end of the chase and is now awaiting charges, with no first court date yet set.
According to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the pursuit began after Rodriguez pointed the gun at the White Bear Lake gas station and fled in the stolen Kia. Ramsey County Sheriff's Office dashcam video obtained by the station shows the final moments of the 18-mile chase, which authorities say lasted about 11 minutes.
Chase Stretched From White Bear Lake Into Anoka
Per the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, Rodriguez headed west on I-694 as deputies pursued him, with the high-speed chase continuing into Anoka before it ended. The station's report notes that Rodriguez kept driving even after his tires crossed stop sticks laid out to disable the vehicle, forcing deputies to use another tactic to end the chase.
A deputy ultimately stopped Rodriguez using a PIT maneuver, a technique in which an officer makes contact with a fleeing vehicle at a specific point to spin it out, as described by CBS News Minnesota. Some Minnesota police and sheriff cadets train specifically in the maneuver as a way to safely end pursuits that have run too long or grown too dangerous to continue.
Minnesota Pursuits Are Common — and Often End Without Arrests
The Richfield man's arrest adds to a long list of Minnesota police pursuits tracked statewide. CBS News Minnesota reports that police across the state engaged in 7,044 pursuits over a recent three-year period, with traffic violations accounting for 56.7% of chases and stolen vehicles making up another 13.6%.
That same analysis found that roughly 70% of pursuits happened between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., and nearly 90% wrapped up in under 10 minutes — making Rodriguez's 11-minute chase slightly longer than most. More than half of all pursuits statewide, 54%, ended without the driver ever being arrested, though the vast majority, 98.5%, ended without anyone getting hurt, even as nearly a third resulted in some property damage.
A separate review from the Minnesota Reformer found that police initiated about 2,800 pursuits in 2022 alone, with roughly half stemming from traffic violations and about 6%, or 166 chases, tied to a suspected felony. The outlet also cited a national database showing at least 54 Minnesotans were killed in police chases between 2017 and 2022, with about half of those deaths involving bystanders or passengers riding in the fleeing vehicle.
Other Recent Ramsey County Chases
Rodriguez's arrest follows a string of similar incidents across the Ramsey County area. CBS News Minnesota also reported on a 32-year-old Brooklyn Center man who fled deputies in a pickup truck during a traffic stop near the Hugo–Forest Lake border, and on a separate early-morning chase in which a Ramsey County sergeant used a PIT maneuver after a pickup reached speeds around 90 miles per hour. In that case, the station's report says it took the sergeant three attempts before forcing the truck to crash, after which the driver ran on foot before being taken into custody.
In another pursuit reported by Valley News Live, a black Lexus hit more than 100 mph on I-694 in Ramsey County before clipping another vehicle and sending both cars into a ditch. That chase ended with a 22-year-old St. Paul man arrested on suspicion of fleeing police, while a 26-year-old passenger was taken into custody on an active Dakota County burglary warrant.
No charges have yet been filed against Rodriguez, and the Richfield man does not have a first court date on the books, according to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office has not released further details on the investigation.
