Hit-And-Run Suspect Caught In Vineyard After Pursuit

A Santa Rosa man was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of rear-ending a fire truck and evading police, a Sonoma County sheriff’s sergeant said.

Michael Sean Phillips, 45, was arrested in an incident that started when a resident in the 2000 block of Woolsey Road in unincorporated Sonoma County south of Windsor called 911 around 10:10 a.m. Monday after a man broke glass in the back of her home, sheriff’s Sgt. Cecile Focha said.

The suspect fled in a Toyota Camry and a sheriff’s deputy spotted the car on northbound Mark West Station Road.

The driver took various roads to evade the pursuing deputy as the California Highway Patrol and police from Windsor, Healdsburg and Cloverdale tried to head off the Toyota, Focha said.

The deputy stopped the pursuit when the driver sped past vehicles and passed them on the wrong side of the rural road, which was crowded with bicycle riders, construction equipment and other vehicles, Focha said.

The Toyota collided with the back of a Sonoma County Fire Department truck on Westside Road in the Dry Creek area and the firefighter inside the truck told the deputy the driver fled into a vineyard, Focha said.

The deputy found the damaged and vacant Toyota and after a perimeter was set up, a K-9 was used to track the driver, Focha said.

A deputy spotted a man matching the description of the driver, who was identified as Phillips, Focha said.

Phillips was arrested on suspicion of evading arrest, hit-and-run and a violation of probation and was booked into Sonoma County Jail under $30,000 bail.

-Bay City News