METROPOLIS – A high-speed chase involving a stolen Mustang stretched across McCracken and Massac counties last week and ended with the arrest of a homeless St. Louis man in rural Massac County.
According to Metropolis Police, while driving back from Paducah on I-24 Thursday, Police Chief Harry Masse spotted the car speeding past him on the shoulder near Paducah. Moments later, dispatch confirmed that the vehicle was stolen and possibly driven by an armed suspect. Chief Masse tried to stop the car near the Metropolis exit, but a pursuit began.
The chase continued into Massac County, where officers used stop sticks to disable the car near Marion Road. It crashed about a mile later. The driver fled on foot into the woods. After a four-hour manhunt involving a K-9 unit and multiple agencies, 30-year-old Robert Browning emerged from an abandoned house attic where he was hiding under insulation and was arrested.
Browning was charged with Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, Aggravated Fleeing and Eluding Police, Speeding and other traffic offenses. Due to the SAFE-T Act, he was released on a notice to appear.
Browning was wanted in Missouri for child sexual assault and in Franklin County, TN, for forgery. He’s being held in the Massac County Jail on those warrants.
