COALTON, W.Va. — A man is in custody after being caught during a police pursuit in Randolph County.
On June 7, officers with the Beverly Police Department were conducting a road patrol on U.S. Rt. 48 near Norton when they were alerted to a possible “rolling domestic” involving a firearm, according to a criminal complaint.
While en route, officers were informed that the caller advised that Gordon Channell, 40, of Coalton, had a “sawed off 410 shotgun,” and was on a motorcycle trying to “block her in” at the intersection of Rt. 48 and Norton, officers said.
When officers turned toward Norton, they observed a motorcycle attempting to pass a vehicle in a “no passing zone,” near Bob’s Hot Dog, at which point officers activated their cruiser’s emergency lights and siren and the motorcycle “cut through the gravel lot” and “turned around,” according to the criminal complaint.
Officers began to follow Channell’s motorcycle, at which point he “began pulling away” … “at a high rate of speed,” kicking up dust and crossing over the eastbound lane of W.Va. Rt. 151 “wobbling and with sparks shooting out from under the bike,” officers said.
The pursuit continued to the intersection of Coalton-Pumpkintown Road, at which point Channell “turned wide to the left and almost lost the bike,” as he slid toward a ditch and officers “put the front of the cruiser in towards him” and he “threw his hands up,” according to the complaint.
Channell has been charged with fleeing in a vehicle. He is being held in Tygart Valley Regional Jail on $10,000 bond.
