Man in violent chase ran with his 5 year old in truck

DUNLAP, Tennessee (WDEF) – Police say a man who crashed into their cars and brandished a gun did it all with a five year old in his truck.

Dunlap Police first tried to pull him over around 7PM for illegal passing near the Wal-Mart.

The Silverado pickup pulled over near Mountain Valley Bank and the driver got out.

But when the officer also got out, the driver hopped back in his vehicle and sped off.

The pursuing officer said when he caught up, the driver slammed on his brakes to try to make the officer rear-end him.

When that failed, he says the driver rammed the side of the police vehicle.

The officer had to give up on the chase because of damage to his cruiser.

Then around 8:30 PM, a Sequatchie County deputy spotted the truck again on the north end of town.

Once again, he pulled over and got out.

But the deputy says this time he brandished a gun before jumping back into the truck and running.

This time the chase headed south through Dunlap, through a field, up Daus Mountain and eventually onto Highway 399 into Grundy County where Grundy deputies joined in.

Eventually the driver lost control in a curve and hit a tree.

That’s when they took Ronnie Patrick Johnson into custody.

But they also found that his five year old son was in the truck the entire chase.

Both father and son were checked out by EMTs and Johnson was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

His son was released to other family members.

Johnson faces a long list of charges including multiple counts of aggravated assault, felonious evading arrest, reckless endangerment of a child, and convicted felon in possession of a weapon.