Bizarre chase leaves officer and suspect injured | Crime

SALISBURY - If only James Willie Johnson, Jr., had known that police were not looking for him, maybe all of what happened next could have been avoided.

But when Johnson saw two Salisbury police detectives stopping in front of the home he was visiting on Merritt Avenue Thursday afternoon, his only thought was to run.

Detective Travis Shulenburger did what police do...he gave chase, running behind Johnson through various backyards and streets near the V.A. hospital.

At one point Shulenburger chased Johnson into a garage.  In attempting to elude the police, Johnson jumped head first through a glass window, cutting his head and causing a liberal flow of blood.

Shulenburger grabbed Johnson by the leg, but then let go when Johnson tried to cut Shulenburger with a large piece of glass from the broken window.

Johnson also managed to grab a rake and threaten the detective with it, telling him that he would have to be shot before he would be taken.

By this time other officers arrived and Johnson was subdued, but not quite finished struggling.

While police and EMS workers placed Johnson on a stretcher to be treated for his cuts, Johnson became violent, pulling hard against the straps and wrapping the neighborhood in a ribbon of loud profanity and threats to everyone standing near him.

Even as the stretcher was being placed in the ambulance, Johnson loudly threatened police and EMS workers, telling them he would go on a television show to tell the world what had been done to him.

Johnson was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released for cuts to his head.

He was then taken to jail, charged with assault with a deadly weapon, resisting police, and breaking and entering.  Bond was set at $50,000.

Detective Shulenburger was treated for scrapes and minor injuries he sustained during the chase.

And as it turns out, the detectives weren't looking for Johnson at all.  They had warrants for another person who lived at the house on Merritt Avenue.

Johnson does have an outstanding warrant for felony breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering in an unrelated case.