‘God had his hand on me’: Police chief on pursuit rollover

(NewsNation) — Tontitown Police Chief Corey Jenison’s car flipped over while pursuing a stolen vehicle in a chase that began in Oklahoma and ended in Arkansas.

The police chief walked away from the rollover nearly unscathed, treated for only minor injuries at a nearby hospital.

“God really took care of me and protected me,” Jenison said Monday on “Morning in America.”

Footage released by the Tontitown Police Department on Feb. 7 shows several officers pursuing suspects in a U-Haul van who were traveling at speeds over 120 mph.

Jenison used a PIT maneuver to end the chase, which resulted in his car flipping and rolling several times before the car came to a rest in the grassy shoulder area.

Jenison said he’d been in other accidents on the job, but never a rollover. He didn’t anticipate he’d roll over when he saw a brief opportunity to execute the PIT — it’s not a common result of the maneuver, he said.

“It was performed a little hastily, I had a brief window to try to clip the back of the vehicle and safely for everybody else,” Jenison said.

Officers arrested Robert Mercier, 21, and Trenton Johnson, 21, from Michigan, who were taken to the local detention center. In total, they struck four Tontitown patrol vehicles, along with more cars from other agencies.

Inside the van, police found firearms and Molotov cocktails, a type of flammable grenade made with bottles filled with gasoline.

Officers were unaware the Molotov cocktails were inside the car at the time of PIT maneuver, but Jenison said it’s just one of the risks officers face when pursuing a suspect.

The two suspects were charged with three counts of aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, possession of destructive devices, felony fleeing, second-degree battery, four counts of criminal mischief and resisting arrest.

NewsNation affiliate WFLA contributed to this report.