Man waves machete at police, leads them on two county chase

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) - What started out as a routine traffic checkpoint quickly turned into a police chase that went through part of two counties.

It happened just before 5 a.m. last Thursday on East KY 80 at Blackwater Road.

A Laurel County sheriff’s deputy and a London city police officer were set up doing a traffic safety checkpoint when the driver of an SUV saw the roadblock and pulled off in a driveway.

When the officers tried to check the vehicle, the driver, later identified as Gary Dean Smith, 55, of London, drove through the homes yard, waved a machete out the window, and took off on 80 toward Clay County.

When Smith crossed into Clay County, he noticed a Clay County sheriff’s cruiser approaching and tried to hit the deputy head-on. The deputy had to swerve off the road into a culvert to avoid the crash, causing significant damage to the cruiser.

As the chase continued on and headed back toward Laurel County, police say the SUV nearly hit 5 other cars and attempted to ram several police cruisers along the way.

The chase ended up on Watkins Road and eventually Flat Lick Road where London Police and Kentucky State Police had spike strips waiting for him.

Once his car crashed, Smith took off on foot and they fought deputies when they caught him.

He is charged with attempted murder of a police officer, three counts of wanton endangerment, including one on a police officer, two counts of fleeing or evading police, one on foot and one in the car, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and several other criminal and traffic charges.

Smith was taken to the hospital for his injuries and then to the Laurel County Correctional Center.