A 26-year-old Florida man has been arrested on suspicion of driving whilst under the influence after he led police on a high-speed pursuit, crashed his can into someone home and then he blamed it all on his dog.
Reliford Cooper III ran a stop sign and drove through two ditches before he crashed into a Palmetto home as police pursued him for speeding last Wednesday.
Cooper fled his car and tripped in front of a nearby house. He then jumped a backyard fence and sought cover in a Pentecostal church, according to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun.
A K9 tracking Cooper’s path came upon his black T-shirt in front of the church, where a pastor told an officer that he was hiding in the bathroom.
Parishioners forced Cooper out of the church and he was taken into custody.
Police said Cooper smelled of alcohol and burnt marijuana as he was led into a patrol car.
He then asked officers ‘Who was chasing me? You slow as f***!’ while being placed in handcuffs.
‘My dog was driving that car, I ran cause I wanted to,’ Cooper then told officers, according to the arrest report.
Cooper, a convicted felon, served almost five years in prison for armed robbery, burglary and grand theft charges and has since been arrested twice for aggravated assault since his 2013 release.
