Man Drives SUV into Lake St. Clair

ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. - A driver trying to avoid the police winds up in a lake. Officers chased a SUV east on Eleven Mile Road and when the motorist ran out of road, he tried a water getaway, but it did not work. He ended up wet and under arrest.

A 44-year-old Macomb County man has definitely seen better days, but on this day his doom was his own doing. He did not want to come in contact with the cops, but he ended up surrounded by several of the boys in blue in the deep blue sea, well more like Lake St. Clair.

"This guy was driving erratically coming off of 94 onto Eleven Mile," said St. Clair Shores Police Officer John Rood.

"I saw him swerving all over in his lane. He narrowly missed a bunch of construction barrels," said Christine Hirzel.

"He almost hit a couple different cars. When up a curb," Rood said.

"Cut a bunch of people off (and) was trying to drive me off the road at one point," Hirzel said. So she called 9-1-1 and Officer Rood and another patrol car quickly responded.

"When the police tried to pull him over he just kept speeding right down Eleven Mile," said Hirzel. " I don't know if he was drunk or high."

He put the peddle to the metal and took out a fence and a fire hydrant. Then... "He just flew up in the air . He went up the incline," said a witness. "The next thing I saw was the big splash," said another witness.

The man drove a black Nissan Pathfinder into Lake St. Clair. Come to find out it was not even his vehicle. A woman tells FOX 2 her son let the suspect borrow it because his own vehicle was broken down. She tried to sort it all out for us, but her son was not home.

Anyway, it appears his friend could be in big trouble. A blood test will determine if the man was drinking or on drugs.

"It could have been a lot worse. Thank God it wasn't, though," said Rood.