A Christmas evening traffic stop in Blacksburg initiated a vehicle pursuit that eventually resulted in nine felony charges.
At approximately 10:00 p.m., a Blacksburg police officer initiated a traffic stop on a 2003 Chevrolet pickup in the 1400 block of North Main Street due to a traffic violation. The officer made contact with the driver, who was identified as Mitchell Conrad Linkous, a 45-year-old resident of Montgomery County. After speaking with Linkous, the officer asked him to exit the vehicle so he could conduct field sobriety tests because of a reasonable suspicion that Linkous was an impaired driver. Linkous refused to exit the vehicle. Instead, he closed the driver’s side door on the officer and fled the traffic stop in his truck.
A pursuit was initiated because of the seriousness of the offense. The chase went through Blacksburg and into Christiansburg and finally ended in Montgomery County. During the pursuit, the driver intentionally drove at officers. He struck three police vehicles in the 1400 block of Merrimac Road. The pursuit was eventually terminated, but the vehicle was quickly located nearby in the 1400 block of Oilwell Road, crashed and abandoned. A search of the area was conducted with assistance from a police K-9 team and the use of a drone. Linkous was located concealing himself behind an outbuilding and taken into custody without incident.
Mitchell Conrad Linkous was arrested and charged by Blacksburg Police with the following violations:
18.2-57 (C) Aggravated Assault on Law Enforcement, six felony counts; 18.2-137(B)(ii) Destruction of Property, two felony counts; 46.2-817 (B) Eluding from Law Enforcement, one felony count; 18.2-137(A) Destruction of Property, one misdemeanor count; 18.2-266(M) Driving Motor Vehicle while Intoxicated, one misdemeanor count; and 18.2-268.3 Refusal of Tests (Breath), one misdemeanor count
Linkous is currently being held in the Montgomery County Jail without bond awaiting arraignment. No officers were injured during the pursuit and subsequent search.
The officers of the Blacksburg Police Department would like to thank the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia Tech Police Department, the Christiansburg Police Department, the Virginia State Police and the Roanoke County Police Department for their assistance.
