"They were going to kill me."
That's the cryptic message an Arizona City woman -- hopped up on bath salts -- gave police before leading them on a 30-minute chase Saturday afternoon.
The pursuit ended when cops managed to blast her in the face with pepper spray while she was still behind the wheel of her vehicle.
According to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, about noon on Saturday, a deputy noticed a Nissan Altima with no license plate driving westbound near the intersection of Camino Adelante and Picacho Peak Road.
The deputy watched as the driver of the Altima came to a complete stop in the middle of the road as he passed her. The woman started driving again after getting passed by the deputy, eventually pulling up right next to his patrol car.
The deputy recognized the driver -- 43-year-old Tamara Hall -- from
previous contact he'd had with her. He asked Hall if everything was
alright, at which point she told him "they were going to kill me."
When the deputy asked Hall to shut her vehicle off, she took off heading eastbound.
The deputy gave chase, reaching speeds of 35-60 miles per hour. During
the chase, Hall was swerving all over the place and frequently left the
roadway. She was also honking the vehicle's horn and waving her arms out
the window.
After about 30 minutes, a secondary PCSO unit joined the pursuit -- as
Hall's vehicle had completely left the roadway and was driving on a dirt
road next to a moving train.
As Hall's vehicle approached the second deputy, he tossed stop
sticks in front of her vehicle in an attempt to disable it.
Hall, however, apparently saw the sticks and slammed on her breaks,
stopping about a foot short of having her tires shredded.
As Hall was stopped in front of the stop sticks, one of the deputies got
close enough to her vehicle to spray pepper spray in her face through
the open driver's side window as she sat behind the wheel of the running
vehicle.
Hall then drove over the stop sticks, destroying one of her tires. She then came to a stop and was taken into custody.
After she was arrested, Hall told deputies that she'd snorted bath salts earlier in the day.
Hall was booked into the Pinal County jail on one count each of driving
while impaired by a drug, felony flight, and a previous warrant for
failure to appear.
