🚔 120 MPH, A STOLEN U-HAUL, AND A POLICE CRUISER FLIPPING: THE ARKANSAS CHASE

Documentary-style police storytelling based on the dashcam footage and reported details from law enforcement and news sources.

There are moments in a police pursuit when the situation changes in a matter of seconds.

A vehicle that was already dangerous becomes even more unpredictable. Traffic turns into an obstacle course. Officers have to make decisions while traveling at speeds where a single mistake can have consequences for everyone on the road.

On February 7, 2024, one of those moments unfolded across Oklahoma and Arkansas.

At the center of it was an ordinary-looking white U-Haul cargo van.

From a distance, it looked like just another rental vehicle traveling along the highway. But police say the van was stolen—and what followed became a pursuit involving multiple law-enforcement agencies, speeds exceeding 120 miles per hour, collisions with other vehicles, and a dramatic maneuver that sent a police cruiser rolling several times.

Inside the van were two 21-year-old Michigan men, Cory Robert Mercier and Trenton Johnson.

And by the time the chase ended in northwest Arkansas, investigators said they would discover firearms, a machete, and two improvised incendiary devices commonly described as Molotov cocktails inside the vehicle.

THE CHASE BEGINS IN OKLAHOMA

The story began in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, when police were alerted to a vehicle that had reportedly been stolen.

According to the Locust Grove Police Department, officers located the U-Haul and attempted to stop it.

The driver did not stop.

Instead, the U-Haul accelerated away, beginning a pursuit that would eventually cross the state line into Arkansas.

As the chase developed, the speed quickly became a major concern.

Police said the fleeing vehicle reached speeds of more than 120 mph.

At those speeds, the U-Haul was no longer simply a vehicle trying to escape. It was moving through traffic with enormous momentum, leaving very little room for other drivers to react.

Dashcam footage later released by Tontitown police shows the van moving rapidly through traffic as multiple police vehicles pursue it.

Then came another collision.

Police said the U-Haul struck another vehicle head-on near Colcord, Oklahoma.

But even that crash did not bring the van to a stop.

The driver continued fleeing.

And the pursuit continued toward Arkansas.

CROSSING INTO ARKANSAS

The pursuit eventually entered northwest Arkansas.

More officers became involved as the U-Haul continued along Highway 412 toward the Tontitown area.

The chase had now stretched roughly 60 miles from where it began, according to local reporting.

For officers watching the pursuit unfold, the problem was no longer simply catching the vehicle.

They had to consider the traffic around them.

A large cargo van was moving at extreme speed among other motorists. Every lane change, every intersection and every vehicle ahead represented another potential point of impact.

According to Tontitown Detective Keith Lindley, the department's concern was the safety of people on the roadway.

He later compared the situation to having a dangerous weapon moving through a crowd, emphasizing what police described as the need to prevent someone else from being seriously hurt.

Then the pursuit reached Interstate 49 near Springdale.

And that's where the dashcam footage captures the moment everything changed.

THE DECISION TO END THE PURSUIT

Behind the fleeing U-Haul was a Tontitown police cruiser.

At the wheel was Tontitown Police Chief Corey Jenison.

The U-Haul was still moving at high speed.

Jenison made the decision to use a Tactical Vehicle Intervention, or TVI—a maneuver in which a pursuing police vehicle makes controlled contact with the fleeing vehicle in an attempt to force it out of its path and bring the pursuit to an end.

The maneuver worked.

But the footage shows just how violent the consequences could be.

The police cruiser makes contact with the rear of the U-Haul.

For a moment, both vehicles move together.

Then the cruiser breaks away.

It leaves the roadway and begins to roll.

Once.

Twice.

Then again.

The patrol vehicle flips and rolls across the grassy area beside the highway before finally coming to rest.

The U-Haul is also forced to a stop, bringing the high-speed pursuit to an end.

What had begun with a stolen rental van had ended with a heavily damaged police cruiser—and an officer who had just experienced a violent rollover crash.

THE OFFICER SURVIVES

Chief Jenison was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated.

Despite the violent crash, reports said his injuries were minor or non-life-threatening, and he was released from the hospital. He returned to work the following day.

The crash could have been far worse.

Several other law-enforcement vehicles were also damaged during the pursuit, including four Tontitown police vehicles, according to local reporting.

But the pursuit itself was only part of the story.

Once officers secured the U-Haul, they began searching the vehicle.

What they reportedly found added another layer to the case.

WHAT WAS INSIDE THE U-HAUL?

According to the arrest affidavit cited by The Associated Press, officers found two firearms, a machete, and two Molotov cocktails inside the van.

The discovery immediately raised questions about what the occupants intended to do with those items.

Detective Keith Lindley said police had conversations with the suspects and reported that they said they were headed back toward Michigan.

Authorities did not establish in the sources cited here exactly what the suspects intended to do with the weapons and incendiary devices.

That distinction is important.

The presence of the items was reported by police and documented in the arrest affidavit, but their ultimate intended use was a matter for investigators and the courts—not something that can be established simply from the pursuit footage.

Mercier and Johnson were taken into custody.

Both were 21 years old.

Both were from Michigan.

And investigators soon discovered that Arkansas was not the only state where authorities were interested in them.

A CASE THAT STARTED BEFORE THE ARKANSAS CHASE

Tontitown police said the two men were also wanted by authorities in Westland, Michigan.

According to Westland police, investigators had been looking into earlier incidents involving the same men and a U-Haul.

Local reporting said officers had attempted to stop the pair in Michigan on January 23, 2024, and that the driver allegedly fled.

Two days later, investigators reportedly located the U-Haul again.

When detectives approached and identified themselves as police, authorities said the driver rammed an unmarked police vehicle and nearly struck a detective before fleeing.

Those Michigan allegations were separate from the Arkansas pursuit.

But together, they helped explain why investigators in several jurisdictions were already interested in the two men.

THE ARRESTS AND CHARGES

After the Arkansas pursuit, Cory Robert Mercier and Trenton Johnson were booked into the Benton County Detention Center.

Authorities announced multiple charges, including aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, possession of destructive devices, felony fleeing, second-degree battery, criminal mischief and resisting arrest.

Those were allegations and charges, not all findings of guilt.

The case later moved through the courts.

In May 2025, KNWA reported that both men pleaded guilty in Washington County to criminal possession of explosives.

Johnson received 10 years of probation, with the condition that he testify against Mercier if needed. Mercier received a 10-year prison sentence with two years suspended on that case. Other charges and proceedings remained separate.

THE MOMENT THE CHASE ENDED

Looking back at the dashcam footage, the most striking part is how quickly everything unfolds.

The camera follows the U-Haul as it races along the highway.

Traffic continues moving around it.

Police vehicles close in.

Then comes the final maneuver.

The cruiser strikes the van.

The perspective suddenly changes.

The horizon disappears.

The patrol vehicle rolls violently across the roadside.

And within seconds, a pursuit that had traveled across two states is finally over.

For the officer behind the wheel, the crash became a reminder of the physical danger involved in ending a pursuit at high speed.

For investigators, the stopped U-Haul became a crime scene.

And for everyone else on the highway that afternoon, it was a situation that could have ended very differently.

No chase like this happens in isolation.

There is the initial decision to flee.

There are the officers who respond.

There are innocent motorists sharing the same road.

And there are the split-second decisions made when police determine that allowing the pursuit to continue may present a greater danger than attempting to stop it.

In this case, that decision ended with a police cruiser rolling multiple times on the side of an Arkansas interstate.

The officer survived.

The suspects were arrested.

And the U-Haul that had raced through Oklahoma and Arkansas was finally still.

What began as a vehicle that looked like any other rental van had become the center of a multi-state police investigation involving a high-speed pursuit, multiple crashes, weapons and incendiary devices—and a dashcam recording that captured the final seconds from the perspective of the officer who made the decision to end it.

The chase lasted only minutes. But the footage preserved every second of the decision that brought it to an end.