Police: Woman's Knife Threat of Huntington Woods Officer Leads to Wild High-Speed Chase

A Madison Heights woman was arrested Saturday after allegedly pulling a knife on a Huntington Woods Public Safety officer and then leading officers on a high-speed chase down Woodward Avenue, through a construction zone on I-696 and ending in St. Clair Shores, Huntington Woods officials reported.

Huntington Woods Public Safety Lt. Billy Spencer said in a police report that he left his desk Saturday about 10 a.m. at the sound of a honking horn and discovered a woman throwing papers from the window of a silver Ford Mustang. The woman, later identified as Julie White, 47, of Madison Heights, was parked in the Huntington Woods Public Safety Department's parking lot facing east and rolled up her window as Spencer approached.

“I began asking her if she needed assistance,” he said in the report. “The driver began shouting that she wanted a Huntington Woods city employee."

He said he advised the driver that the employee wasn't working and asked for her to lower her window.

“As the window lowered, I saw that the subject had a knife with a 3- or 4-inch blade in her right hand,” Spencer stated, adding that the woman held the knife up through the window opening and pointed it at his body.

Spencer said he drew his weapon and ordered White to leave her vehicle. She first “just sat in the car and stared out the front windshield,” then placed the car in reverse, spinning to face north and injuring Spencer's right leg in the process, the report said.

Spencer said he was able to get into his squad car and called for backup. He and Officer Clarence Bennett caught up with the woman at 11 Mile Road and Woodward, where Spencer said he parked his car in front of hers and attempted to break the driver's side window after she refused to exit.

“The subject then accelerated and rammed into the rear of my parked scout car,” he wrote, then sped south down Woodward.

Bennett and Spencer then gave chase as the woman turned east on 10 Mile Road to eastbound I-696. The chase continued on the expressway, parts of which were closed for construction in Roseville, Spencer wrote, and he notified MDOT to alert construction crews.

“The subject began hitting construction barrels and barricades,” he said. “I then chose to try and stop the subject's vehicle before it reached construction workers.” His attempts to slow her car failed, so Roseville police set up “stop sticks” to deflate her tires, which eventually slowed down her vehicle to about 40 mph as she entered I-94 west.

White got off the freeway at the Nine Mile Road exit where Spencer said he attempted to block the exit ramp. White went around the blockade, the report said, and headed east for a few blocks until she was stopped in traffic.

Spencer then ordered her to leave the vehicle and she again refused, the report stated. A St. Clair Shores police officer was able to break the passenger side window and unlock the doors, the report said, and Spencer ordered White to toss out her weapon. White said she dropped the knife "somewhere in the car," Spencer wrote in his report.

When White again refused to exit her car, Spencer said he deployed a Taser on her upper back as she attempted to relock the doors. White then attempted to remove the Taser probes, the report said, and Spencer advised her not to, "so a second Taser activation was used." When White grabbed the steering wheel, a third Taser activation was issued and she exited the car and was handcuffed, the police report said.

As a St. Clair Shores medical unit unit assessed White's medical condition, Spencer said he again asked her where the knife was. "She again stated that it was in the car but added that she may have dropped it somewhere while she was driving," Spencer said in the report. A search of the car did not locate the knife.

White was transported to the Huntington Woods Public Safety Department without incident. During processing, she consented to a blood draw to determine if she was under the influence of drugs, the report said, when she became ill. She was transported to Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak.

Officer Spencer reported only bruising from the incident and no other injuries were reported.

All told, the chase ran about 20 miles over 20 minutes, at times reaching speeds of 100 mph, according to Huntington Woods Public Safety Officer Ben Zawacki.

White was arraigned at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak on Sunday afternoon and transferred to Oakland County Jail after a mental evaluation, Public Safety Lt. Nick Armold said 

White is charged with felony counts of fleeing police, destruction of police property and assaulting and resisting police. Oak Park 45B District Court Magistrate Arnold Garber set her bond at $15,000. She is scheduled for a pre-exam conference at 1 p.m. July 26.

Correction: Julie White is from Madison Heights.