On June 15, 2026, at approximately 1:23 A.M., an officer was stationary at the side of the westbound onramp to Highway 36 West in Roseville, Ramsey County, Minnesota. The officer observed a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. The officer’s squad radar captured the vehicle’s speed at 107 mph. As the vehicle passed the officer, the officer observed the driver tap the brakes multiple times, and the officer assumed that the driver saw the marked squad parked on the ramp. The officer entered the highway and attempted to catch up with the suspect vehicle.
The officer activated the squad’s emergency lights, but the vehicle continued to flee at a high rate of speed. The suspect vehicle exited onto northbound Snelling Avenue. Other officers located the vehicle near County Road B2 and Hamline Avenue and effectuated a traffic stop. The juvenile passenger initially told police that she did not see police lights behind the vehicle on Highway 36 then eventually admitted to seeing the police lights behind them in the passenger side mirror. The passenger acknowledged that they were going pretty fast.
Police identified the driver as SOVIT MOTEY – [DOB REDACTED]. Following a Miranda advisory, MOTEY denied seeing the officer on the highway and further denied seeing police lights behind him. When asked how fast he was driving, MOTEY responded that the maximum speed he recalled was 87 mph and said that his speedometer gauge must have been malfunctioning. MOTEY also reported that he just retrieved the vehicle from his mechanic after a transmission repair and advised that he was testing the vehicle but not driving excessively fast.
MOTEY told police that he was playing music loudly in the vehicle. MOTEY reiterated that he did not see police lights during the incident and said he would have pulled over if he’d seen them. The officer told MOTEY that all he needed to do was slow down, and if he had pulled over, the officer would have just issued him a citation for speeding. MOTEY looked down, nodded his head, and apologized.
