NORMAN, Okla. — Authorities have now identified a man who killed himself following a high-speed chase with police.
Police say it all started when they were in the area of S.E. 46th St. and Shields looking for 31-year-old Juddson Fanning.
Fanning was wanted for a felony warrant out of Pottawatomie County and domestic strangulation and robbery.
Officers were on the lookout for Fanning for days and finally spotted him Tuesday morning.
As they tried to pull him over near S.E. 44th St. and High, he sped away.
Fanning led them on a chase along I-35 through Oklahoma City, Moore and Norman with speeds reaching 100 miles per hour.
Police say they decided to continue pursuing Fanning because he was considered an armed and dangerous felon who posed a risk to the public.
Shortly after exiting the interstate on Robinson Ave, he collided with another car after turning onto Main St.
As police moved in on Fanning’s car, he pulled out a handgun and took his own life.
The victims in the car that was hit were treated and released from a local hospital.
Amazingly, Fanning did not hit anyone else during the chase.
However, one witness was crossing the street as the suspect sped through, just missing her.
Tawana Harper says, “I’m still trying to get myself together because it happened right behind me, literally, in the cross walk.”
Harper works just across the street from where the dangerous pursuit ended.
She was on her way back from a gas station, crossing the intersection at 24th and Main Street.
She saw police vehicles in the distance but didn’t think anything of it, so she crossed the street.
As she walk into the middle of the cross walk, the suspect’s car sped through the intersection and collided with another car, barely missing her.
“All I hear is a loud boom. I turn around and cars are spinning,” says Harper. “I barely had time to run and get out of the cross walk.”
In that moment, all she could think about was getting out-of-the-way.
However, she is now shocked to hear it all started with a wanted man in Oklahoma City.
Harper says, “I hear later on that there was this big chase and that was a part of the chase!”
Capt. Dexter Nelson, with the Oklahoma City Police Department, said, “This is a suspect we’ve been looking for, for days in response to a number of criminal charges. He’s known to the officers, according to the people they’ve contacted, as being a violent felon.”
Harper says today was enough excitement for her for a long time and she will be counting her blessings.
“Thank God I wasn’t hit, I wasn’t taken out,” says Harper. “I can go home and see my husband, my kids.”
Investigators with the Oklahoma City Police Department are looking into Fanning’s death.
Currently, none of the officers who were involved were placed on administrative leave.