Man wanted on warrants dies in crash into wall of Dana Drive furniture store

Mike Chapman, Redding Record Searchlight
·2 min read
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A driver has died after a police pursuit that ended when the man's pickup crashed into the side of a furniture store on Dana Drive on Saturday morning.

Redding police Capt. Ron Icely did not identify the man but said he was wanted on arrest and search warrants stemming from a child sexual abuse case that was investigated earlier in May.

A crime scene investigation van is parked next to a pickup where a man crashed into the side of Ashley Furniture and was found dead by Redding police on Saturday morning, May 28, 2022.
A crime scene investigation van is parked next to a pickup where a man crashed into the side of Ashley Furniture and was found dead by Redding police on Saturday morning, May 28, 2022.

That person was known to have firearms, said Icely, the commander of the Redding Police Department's detective division.

Icely said police officers located the man just after 8 a.m. Saturday as he was driving a 2016 Ford F-150 in the area of Canby Road and Victor Avenue. The man didn't yield for an enforcement stop.

"(The pickup) pulled into the Walmart parking lot, accelerated westbound towards Ashley Furniture and for unknown reasons collided with the east wall of Ashley Furniture," Icely said.

He said no shots were fired by the police.

Redding police investigate the death of a man who crashed into the wall of Ashley Furniture on Dana Drive on Saturday morning, May 28, 2022.
Redding police investigate the death of a man who crashed into the wall of Ashley Furniture on Dana Drive on Saturday morning, May 28, 2022.

"The driver was not responsive to commands from officers. The occupant or occupants of the vehicle could not be seen," Icely said.

He said police used non-lethal bean-bag rounds to shoot out the pickup's back window so a drone could get a look inside the truck where air bags deployed. The SWAT team vehicle parked near the pickup as officers had their guns drawn.

"Once we were able to safely make contact with the sole occupant of the vehicle, it was determined that the subject is deceased and that a firearm was located inside the vehicle," Icely said.

He said the cause of death will be determined by the Shasta County Coroner's Office.

"It had to have been a fairly violent collision (into the wall) because of the front-end damage on the vehicle," Icely said.

The captain said investigators "have a lot of work to do" processing the scene and that more details could be released Tuesday.

While police were in the parking lot, an apparent family member tried to drive his pickup to the crime scene and yelled at officers before people restrained him in the Walmart parking lot.

Mike Chapman is an award-winning reporter and photographer for the Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif. His newspaper career spans Yreka and Eureka in Northern California and Bellingham, Wash. Support local journalism by subscribing today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Man wanted on warrants dies in crash into wall of Redding store