A pursuit involving the Green River Police Department and Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office ensued early Friday afternoon, which ended in a Green River man’s death.
The pursuit started at approximately 1:50 p.m., when GRPD Lt. Burke Morin was at a gas station on the east side of Green River filling up his vehicle. He saw a white truck that matched the description of a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run crash last week.
Morin finished fueling his vehicle and found the truck again, but could not see the front of the vehicle where the suspected damage would have been. Morin attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver didn’t stop.
“He knew I was behind him,” Morin said. “Other traffic stopped but he wouldn’t.”
Morin requested a marked police vehicle to stop the driver.
“They tried. He refused to stop and drove up South Hill,” Morin said.
The driver, identified as Matthew Jay Draper, 43, of Green River, continued driving, sped up and turned onto County Road 37. From there, the driver turned onto a dirt road, into the desert.
At this point, there were two GRPD officers and a sheriff’s deputy in pursuit of the vehicle.
“They were right behind him, I was not,” Morin said.
Draper’s vehicle became stuck off the dirt road, but officers were unable to make physical contact with Draper before he killed himself.
The sheriff’s office is undergoing an investigation concerning the incident.
Draper had previously been reported as a missing person about two weeks ago. The report was canceled Thursday, when Draper’s family found him and said he was fine.
He’d been missing for about 10 days. The next day, the pursuit occurred.
Further inspection of the truck revealed the vehicle was not the one involved in the hit-and-run incident. According to Morin, there is a possible vehicle located responsible for that incident.
“As it turns out, We don’t believe it had anything to do with the hit-and-run crash,” Morin said.
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