It began, according to court documents reported by the Arizona Republic, with a black Dodge Challenger going 37 mph in a 65 mph zone on State Route 51. It ended, hours of police work later, with that car crashed through a closed hangar door at Scottsdale Airport, two people taken to the ground on an active airfield, and the FBI investigating a trespass onto critical infrastructure.
The Arizona Republic reported the account on Oct. 20 from court documents filed after the Oct. 17 incident. What follows is that documented sequence — attributed throughout to those court records as reported by the Republic — involving driver Liberty Still, 33, and passenger Michael Wall, 24.
A slow car draws the attention of a street-racing detail
On Oct. 17, Phoenix police detectives were surveilling a known street racing group on State Route 51 near Bethany Home Road when they saw the black Challenger traveling 37 mph in a 65 mph zone and disrupting traffic, according to court documents cited by the Arizona Republic. The driver was later determined to be Still, with Wall as her passenger.
Detectives used lights and sirens, but the vehicle did not stop, according to the court documents. Rather than pursue blindly, detectives launched a GPS device onto the vehicle, and a police air unit followed it from above — a tracking approach that let officers keep eyes on the car without a continuous ground chase, the Republic reported.
From the freeway to a locked airport gate
The pair ended up at Scottsdale Airport, near Scottsdale Road and Butherus Drive, according to court documents reported by the Arizona Republic. There, the vehicle stopped at a closed, locked gate at the airport operations center. What happened next is the moment the incident escalated from flight to felony allegations: the car reversed into a detective's unmarked vehicle, according to the documents.
Then, detectives say, the vehicle accelerated, rammed and destroyed the security gate, and drove onto the tarmac at around 11:15 p.m. — while the airport was still active, with commercial and private planes taking off and landing, according to the court documents cited by the Republic.
Near misses, a hangar, and aircraft inside it
Once on the airfield, the vehicle nearly struck several planes, drove around a hangar, and then crashed through a closed hangar door, according to court documents reported by the Arizona Republic. Inside, it drove through multiple private aircraft, colliding with the tail of one of them. The documents, as reported by the Republic, describe damage to the gate, the hangar and the aircraft — though the full extent and cost of that damage is a matter for the filings Scottsdale police are preparing.
AZFamily, citing Phoenix police, also reported that the vehicle struck an empty plane and a hangar before the two fled, and that Scottsdale police documented damage to the gate, the hangar and the plane.
Still and Wall then fled on foot, according to the court documents. Detectives took both of them to the ground on the airfield.
An arrest detectives say put them at risk
The arrest of Wall was not a simple handcuffing, according to the account in court documents reported by the Arizona Republic. Wall had his hands in a backpack, was tased, and a struggle continued. Detectives said making an arrest on the runway put them at greater risk — an active airfield at night, with aircraft still moving, is among the most dangerous places imaginable for a foot arrest, and the documents reflect that concern.
AZFamily likewise reported that Wall was Tased during the arrest, matching the struggle described in the court documents.
Wall also refused to give his true name and was identified by a fingerprint scan, according to the court documents. Still, meanwhile, had an active Glendale misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear, the Republic reported from the documents.
The charges — and three investigating agencies
Still was booked on Phoenix charges of obstructing a thoroughfare, unlawful flight and felony resisting arrest, according to court documents reported by the Arizona Republic. Scottsdale police are filing felony criminal damage and critical infrastructure trespassing charges, and the FBI is investigating the airport trespassing.
Wall was booked on charges of aggravated assault on an officer, felony resisting arrest and refusing to provide a truthful name, according to the documents. Scottsdale police and the FBI are also investigating critical-facility trespassing in his case.
The setting matters to the risk detectives described. Scottsdale Airport is a city-owned municipal field about nine miles north of downtown Scottsdale and one of the busiest single-runway general aviation airports in the nation, according to FAA records summarized by Wikipedia, with scheduled JSX service alongside heavy private traffic. It is, in other words, a working airport — which is why a car on its tarmac at 11:15 p.m. drew not just two police departments but a federal investigation.
It is not clear, the Republic reported, what either Still or Wall said after their arrests. Their cases now move through the courts in two cities, with a federal investigation running alongside — an extraordinary legal aftermath for an incident that started, detectives say, with a car going too slowly on SR 51. Previously covers developing Valley crime and courts stories in our news section, and this case will be followed as filings move forward on the Previously homepage.
Reporting based on court documents as reported by the Arizona Republic on Oct. 20. All allegations are as stated in those documents; the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise. Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons.
