Man Involved in Hit-And-Run that Injured 2 Arrested After Allegedly Trying to Ram Police

By Bay City News—

An 18-year-old Oakland man was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly tried to use his vehicle to injure Emeryville police officers and seriously injured two other people in a crash, police said today.
 
Travis Michelbrook was arrested late Tuesday night after a pursuit that ended when he crashed into a construction scaffold at the intersection of Powell and Hollis streets in Emeryville, police said.
 
The crash occurred only moments after the Chevy pickup Michelbrook was driving collided with a late model Chevy sedan at the same intersection, according to police.
 
A 38-year-old woman who was a passenger in the sedan sustained life-threatening injuries in the crash and the 46-year-old man who was driving the car suffered moderate injuries, police said.

Both are being treated at a local hospital. Michelbrook also sustained injuries and broken bones and is being treated at a local hospital, according to authorities.

The Chevy pickup he was driving sustained major damage. Emeryville police said the incident began at about 10:47 p.m. Tuesday when security officers at the Chevy's restaurant at 1890 Powell St. alerted them about a possible vehicle theft in progress in the restaurant's parking lot. The parking lot has a long history of vehicle burglaries and thefts, according to police.
 
Officers who arrived at the parking lot saw a male driver, who later was identified as Michelbrook, trying to flee in a Chevy pickup, police said.
 
However, police said Michelbrook refused verbal commands to stop his vehicle and rammed the officers' parked vehicles in his attempt to flee. Both officers were standing just outside their patrol car and feared for their lives, according to police.
 
Michelbrook then drove his pickup over a curb and through bushes at the parking lot and then over another curb into another parking lot where he collided with a private property stop sign, police said.
 
As another Emeryville officer arrived, he saw Michelbrook driving his pickup toward the officer's patrol car, causing the officer to abandon his car for his safety, police said.
 
Michelbrook didn't strike the patrol car and continued into the 200 block of Powell street in the wrong direction, according to police. Another officer who was arriving at the scene saw Michelbrook's vehicle driving east in the westbound lanes of Powell Street so the officer drove off into a gas station in the 1800 block of Powell Street because he feared for his safety, police said.
 
Michelbrook then attempted to escape by traveling east on Powell toward Hollis Street, where he first collided with the Chevy sedan and then crashed into the construction scaffold, according to police.
 
A records check disclosed that the pickup that Michelbrok was driving had been stolen in Oakland earlier this year, police said. Michelbrook was arrested on suspicion of three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, attempted burglary, resisting arrest, felony evading resulting in serious injury and possession of a stolen vehicle.
 
Emeryville police said no officers were injured in the incident but two patrol cars sustained moderate damage from Michelbrook's actions.