Police identify driver in Waukee high-speed chase

The driver who vaulted a stolen BMW off the highway after being pursued by Iowa State Patrol has been named.

Jonathan Cortes Rodriguez, 27, of Chicago is still in the hospital after receiving a serious head injury from Wednesday’s crash, according to Sgt. Nathan Ludwig of the patrol. Once he’s released, he will likely face charges of stealing a vehicle, eluding, speeding, and numerous traffic violations and an Illinois warrant.

He hit 137-miles-per hour during the chase.

The Dallas County Attorney’s Office has advised the patrol not to release the dash cam video from the crash yet, Ludwig said.

Earlier story:

Elmer Buford of Des Moines was unloading his truck at an auto auction near Interstate 80 when he saw a flash of gray.

“You know what it sounds like when a car leaves the ground? It’s like he’s on the gas and then you hear the wheels leave the ground and then you just hear that car accelerate,” Buford said, making a whirring noise.

He turned and saw a silver BMW fly off an exit ramp and into a ditch, then vault over the fence of an auto auction in the 3200 block of Ute Avenue in Waukee. It flipped twice more, crushing empty cars in the lot.

“When he landed, I wasn’t really in too big a hurry to see a dead person,” Buford said.

Two other men in the lot ran over and ripped the driver’s side door open, Buford said, and he could see the driver slumped over with his head on the floorboard.

All of a sudden, the driver made a huge gasp for air, Buford said.

For some yet unknown reason, an Iowa State trooper decided to run the vehicle’s Illinois plates and saw it was stolen, said Sgt. Joel Ehler of the patrol. The unnamed trooper turned on his lights to stop the BMW on I-35/I-80 near Merle Hay Road, but the vehicle took off westward.

It passed other cars using the left shoulder, hitting speeds of more than 100 mph. The trooper could see that the driver wasn’t wearing his seat belt, Ehler said.

Buford said once the vehicle approached Booneville Exit 117 off of I-80 near the auto auction, he saw a black Waukee police SUV speeding the wrong way up the opposing I-80 entrance ramp, likely in an effort to try and block the BMW.

“That was the craziest stuff I’d ever seen in my life,” Buford said.

Ehler said there was a Waukee officer who had stopped an unrelated car near the interchange saw the driver pass in front of him, but Ehler didn’t confirm whether one had gone up the ramp.

Then the vehicle flew off the road and into the ditch, leaving a large gash in the soil. Buford said tons of police flooded the parking lot, drawing their guns.

The male driver suffered a serious but non-life threatening head injury and was taken to Mercy Medical Center, Ehler said.

Dashboard camera video of the chase has not yet been released.

“The trooper has the knowledge of the geographical area and traffic patterns, depending on the severity of the particular violation,” Ehler said. In this case, he had confirmation of a stolen vehicle. It was the trooper’s discretion to continue ... which we have full confidence in.”

Ehler said that as a supervisor, by policy, he has the power to call off a pursuit. But he didn’t have all the information he needed to make that call at the time.

He wouldn’t say whether he would have called it off under these circumstances, stressing again that it’s the trooper’s discretion.

The driver didn’t have other illegal paraphernalia in the car, Ehler said. It’s unclear whether he was under the influence.

The driver’s name has not yet been released. A message left with the Chief of Waukee Police was not immediately returned.