What started as a handoff of a young child between estranged parents turned into a police chase that ended with the father in custody in Chesterfield County.

Chesterfield police arrested the man, whose identity they have not released, early yesterday after cornering him with a police dog in the woods behind a garage on Jefferson Davis Highway.

They charged the man with child endangerment and eluding police for fleeing with his year-old child after police showed up at the mother's request at the planned parental transfer at 2:30 a.m. at the Willis Road exit of Interstate 95. He also was charged with attempted burglary for trying to break into a house during the chase.

The man, who was wanted in Hopewell on a drug charge, drove south with the child and another adult before police slowed him with a nail-strip that flattened his vehicle's tires as he neared the exit for Wood's Edge Road in southern Chesterfield. He fled on foot, leaving the child and adult in the car, unhurt.

Chesterfield police, who had broken off the high-speed chase because of the child, and state police blocked off the southbound exit to Wood's Edge Road. They diverted traffic away from the road as they attempted to surround the man in woods behind the Interstate Inn.

However, the man slipped through the backside of the woods and crossed Jefferson Davis Highway, where he attempted to break into a home with an alarm system that sounded loudly. Nearly 20 Chesterfield, state and Hopewell police converged on the house on Jefferson Davis at Ruffin Mill Road. The force included a Chesterfield SWAT team and two canine units.

The search found no one, but passers-by told police they had seen a man fitting the suspect's description walking north on Jefferson Davis. Police then sped about a half mile north to Elder's Garage and Pat's Sporting Goods, two businesses that sit next to each other in a wooded area on the west side of the highway.

A police dog eventually tracked the man in the woods behind the garage and bit him in the left arm after he refused to surrender. He was apprehended about 7 a.m. and taken to a local hospital for treatment of the bites. He was not armed.

Chesterfield Police Maj. Dan W. Kelly said yesterday that the man used multiple aliases, so police were waiting for his release from the hospital to confirm his identity before making it public.
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.