Vacaville pursuit suspects who caused power blackout identified
(Photo: Cornelius Wigfall, 39, of San Francisco appears in an undated social media photo. Image via Facebook/Graphic by Solano News Update)
Vacaville police have identified a pair of suspects who led officers on a high speed chase through a portion of the city last weekend.
On Saturday, an officer was doing a routine patrol of a Motel 6 on Orange Drive when he spotted two people with an open container of alcohol sitting in a van in the parking lot.
The officer approached the pair and asked for identification. One person, identified by police as 39-year-old Cornelius Wigfall of San Francisco, provided a false name — one that returned to a real person who was on probation, police said.
After the officer told the pair he wanted to conduct a search of the van, the driver, later identified as 28-year-old Antioch resident Irisha Smith, put the vehicle in drive and took off.
Officers gave chase, with speeds reaching over 100 miles per hour as the van flew down Orange Drive and Leisure Town Road. The pursuit came to an end when the van collided with a white sedan near Ulatis Drive. The force of the crash caused the van to strike and destroy a nearby utility pole, which triggered an electrical blackout.
The blackout lasted several hours, affecting hundreds of nearby homes, a handful of traffic lights and at least one fire station. Firefighters voluntarily conducted traffic control in blacked-out intersections near their fire house until a city public works crew could relieve them.
Smith and Wigfall were able to crawl out of the van, police said. They were taken to a local hospital for medical treatment and were released to officers a short time later.
After utility crews rendered the scene safe, police conducted a search of the van and founded an unregistered, loaded firearm, the agency said. They later learned Wigfall had several felony warrants and was on probation for a different crime.
Police say the two were booked into jail on pending charges related to evading police officers, probation violations, firearms charges and outstanding warrants.
The driver of the white sedan sustained serious but non-life threatening injuries. She was taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, police said. She has since been released and is recovering from the incident.
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