High speed chase leads to arrest

At 3:05 a.m. this morning, Havre Police Department officers were patrolling the Smithville area when they stopped a 1997 purple Dodge Intrepid in the 1600 Block of Smithville Road for suspicious activity.

While the officers were investigating, the driver, Ruben Nathaniel McDowell, 39, took off and the officers initiated a pursuit. The driver made it through the Highland Park area to 13th Street and 5th Avenue, and the traveled at high speeds south on 5th Avenue and into Beaver Creek Park.

South of the ski bowl, McDowell was stopped and taken into custody. The passenger of the vehicle fled on foot into the mountains and has not been located, according to a press release from the HPD.

McDowell was arrested on a federal warrant from the U.S. Marshall’s Office for violating federal probation and is now in being held in the Hill County Detention Center without bond for the warrant and a charge of fleeing or eluding a police officer, obstructing a peace officer, trespassing and failure to show proof of insurance.

Read more about the chase in Friday’s issue of the Havre Daily News.