Mass shoplifting incident on Grape Road ends in high-speed chase

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- The St. Joseph County Prosecutors Office has officially charged 24-year-old Shykeena Smith with felony Resisting Law Enforcement after she led Mishawaka Police officers on a chase through the city on July 8.  

MPD says officers were responding to a report of an ongoing group of shoplifters at the Kohl's department store on Grape Road.

"Dispatch advised one group of suspected shoplifters had just left the store and were leaving the scene in a gold Chevy Malibu," MPD officials said. "Officer Laudeman of MPD located the vehicle on Hickory just north of Catalpa heading south as he was heading north. Laudeman turned his police vehicle around and activated his lights and sirens and attempted to stop the vehicle."

Authorities say the Malibu was occupied by two black females and continued to travel at high rates of speed, continuously disregarding red lights and stop signs as well as weaving in and out of traffic.

"Eventually, a South Bend officer deployed stop sticks near Esther and McKinley, deflating the passenger side tires of the vehicle, which continued to flee from police," MPD officials said. "Eventually the vehicle was located unoccupied in the 1400 block of Wayne Street in South Bend. The total path of the chase was approximately four miles from Mishawaka into South Bend.

Smith was identified as the driver as was later located in the backyard of 1440 Sunnymede, where she was taken into custody.

Authorities say that while being transported to the St. Joseph County Jail, Smith said she believed there was a new law that cops "had to stop chasing a vehicle once it got above 80 mph."

Court documents show that Smith is on felony probation out of Porter County and has multiple pending misdemeanor cases for offenses ranging from battery to driving while suspended in multiple counties and has several other Failure to Appear warrants in her history.