Suspect sought in Miami County arrested after high-speed pursuit

UPDATE @ 7:51 p.m. (Aug. 23): Brandon Cantrell has been booked into jail on several new charges stemming from his attempt to elude capture when he triggered a high-speed pursuit that began in Miami County and ended in Montgomery County.

Cantrell is in the Miami County Jail awaiting arraignment on minor misdemeanor charges of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, failing to obey a stop sign, overtaking and passing motor vehicles and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The new charges are in addition to those for which Cantrell had been sought, which are felony gross sexual imposition involving force and sexual battery of a parent or guardian, according to online jail records.

FIRST REPORT (5:38 p.m. @ Aug. 23)

A Miami County man sought on a warrant for sex-related crimes is in jail after a high-speed pursuit that began near Tipp City ended in the parking lot of a business in Vandalia, Miami County sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Bobb said.

Brandon Cantrell, 37, had been wanted on charges for gross sexual imposition and sexual battery filed in Miami County Common Pleas Court.

Detectives working the case received a tip from a private citizen that Cantrell would be in Tipp City, in the area of South County Road 25A and East Shoop Road, Bobb said. The sheriff’s office had the license tag information and a sheriff’s unit spotted the wanted vehicle — a 2007 Chevy Cobalt — in the area of East Evanston Road and County Road 25 A.

Bobb said the deputy pulled in behind the vehicle about 3:51 p.m. and driver sped off, heading east on Evanston and then south on South Tipp Cowlesville Road.

The pursuit, which also involved Tipp City police, reached 85 mph and continued into Montgomery County until Cantrell pulled into the parking lot of a Coldwell Banker real estate office, in the 300 block of North Dixie Drive, in Vandalia.

There, deputies and Vandalia police hemmed in Cantrell’s car. He was taken into custody, at gunpoint, about 3:57 p.m., Bobb said.

Sheriff’s investigators had been looking for Cantrell since the warrant was issued July 21, Bobb said, and they had information that Cantrell had been spending time in West Virginia, Kentucky and Troy.

Cantrell was being booked into the Miami County Jail on Tuesday night, where he will be detained pending the filing of formal charges stemming from the pursuit.

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