Roachdale man arrested after area police pursuit

NEW MARKET -- A 33-year-old northern Putnam County man was arrested by Montgomery County authorities Wednesday afternoon after leading police on a vehicle pursuit.

The police chase ended in a crash in southern Montgomery County that caught the suspect's vehicle on fire.

Wesley Baker, of Roachdale, was lodged in the Montgomery County Jail at Crawfordsville, facing charges of reckless driving and reckless endangerment following Wednesday's police pursuit. He was also booked in on a warrant for parole violation.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office reports that deputies were responding to an alarm in the southern part of the county at approximately 3:28 p.m. when the incident escalated.

While en route to the scene, one officer reportedly spotted a 1991 Ford Thunderbird being operated by a suspicious driver in the vicinity of the alarm location.

As another deputy turned around and began to catch up with the suspicious vehicle, Baker fled the scene in the car, reportedly driving recklessly on U.S. 231.

When deputies tried to stop the Thunderbird, the driver refused to pull over and the T-Bird turned onto State Road 234 and then onto a county road, where the car went off the roadway and rolled into a bean field, ultimately catching fire as a result. The car was reported as a total loss.

Baker was transported to Franciscan St. Elizabeth Hospital, Crawfordsville, where the Roachdale man was treated and released for non-life-threatening injuries. He was then booked into the Montgomery County Jail.

When deputies later checked the home from which the original alarm had come, they reported that it did not appear the house had been entered.