WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. - A West Frankfort woman says she was nearly killed in a police pursuit Wednesday, and it appears that the guy police were pursuing has been harassing her ever since.
Ashley Turner said that at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, November 30, she was out thrifting and buying stockings and candy for her local Christmas Angel program and on the way to Fred’s in Marion. She was on Illinois Route 37 in her red SUV when one Travis Braden, a local criminal, ran the stop at Cleveland Street and Route 37 in West Frankfort, resulting in a high-speed collision with her Ford Explorer.
The impact spun her SUV three times. Authorities told her that had she not seen him and braked for 20-30 feet, he would have impacted the driver’s side door, which would have crushed her.
Ashley Turner's SUV
Authorities, to their credit, stopped the pursuit after the collision, but Turner said it didn't appear that he was the subject of a foot pursuit.
The vehicle Braden was in, which as it turns out was stolen from one Chasity Digby, almost ran into the veterinarian’s office located at that intersection. Apparently there were passengers in that vehicle; they were flown out by air evac due to their injuries. One of those, it turns out, was his own father.
Digby's car
Braden, however, shot out of the stolen car and fled on foot. As of yesterday (Thursday, December 1), he’d not been apprehended.
Further to that, Turner said that Braden apparently had internet signal - he made comments on her Facebook page when she posted about the collision.
Braden is on parole currently; he is a long-term career criminal with convictions on multiple burglary and drug charges, for which he’s spent time in prison. He was paroled in June of this year and there is, according to Illinois Department of Corrections, no date determined as yet for his parole discharge. A prelim has been set for a November 21 incident in Franklin County wherein he has been charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance. Whether he will show up for his December 7 hearing remains to be seen, as, at last report, he hadn’t been apprehended after the collision Wednesday.