Reno to Carson City hit-and-run driver identified

The hit-and-run driver who led police and the Nevada Highway Patrol on a 30-mile chase from Reno to Carson City last week has been identified as David Wright.

Wright, 45, from Sacramento, was finally stopped near the Arrowhead/College Parkway off-ramp of I-580 by spike strips that blew out two of his car’s tires.

He was initially sent to Carson Tahoe for treatment of a bite wound inflicted by a Carson sheriff’s K-9 and for mental and substance evaluation.

NHP Public Information Officer Trooper Hannah DeGoey said after medical personnel were done with Wright, he was booked into the Carson City Jail on a laundry list of charges.

He faces charges of resisting a public officer, obstruction, eluding authorities, two counts of assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon — the NHP officers and sheriff’s deputies trying to arrest him — and a misdemeanor warrant charging contempt of court.

The chase began last Wednesday after reports of a driver deliberately crashing into at least eight other vehicles in south Reno, then fleeing Reno police and NHP officers.

At the end of the chase, DeGoey and Carson Sheriff Ken Furlong said Wright refused all efforts to get him to cooperate and get out of the car. He was pepper sprayed and tazed but still refused to surrender until deputies sent in the dog.

DeGoey said he had no ID on his person and refused to tell officers who he was so they used fingerprints to identify him.

Wright could also face charges stemming from the damage to the vehicles in Reno where the incident started.