LEBANON, TN (WSMV) -
An officer is sharing his desperate attempt to stay alive after he was dragged by a woman attempting to flee from police Monday.
As far as arrests go, Officer Jason Bringhurst said he thought he was making a pretty "low key" one when he approached Christina Mathieson outside a cash advance business in Lebanon.
Instead, Mathieson sped away, dragging Bringhurst for several feet, before leading police on a high-speed chase through several Middle Tennessee counties that ended in a crash.
"I asked her what her name was, and she told me her name. She handed me her driver's license, and I said, 'I need you to step out of the vehicle.' And that's when she grabbed the gear shifter and put it in reverse," Bringhurst said.
As she was pulling away, Bringhurst had both arms inside the gray Toyota in a failed attempt to stop Mathieson.
"I jumped into the window to try to stop her from leaving," Bringhurst said.
But the chase was on, first through Lebanon city streets and yards, running over swimming pools and tomato gardens, then onto State Route 840 and eventually onto Interstate 24.
"The woman at one of the houses said her kids' pool was run over. She said had it been today, Tuesday, that the kids would've been out there playing in the pool," Bringhurst said.
Mathieson, 36, of College Grove, TN, apparently fled because she had an outstanding warrant in Williamson County for a check violation.
But the ensuing chase became a deadly game of cat and mouse.
"I know on back roads we were going around 70 miles per hour, and on city streets. I know one patrol unit got up to 126 on the interstate," Bringhurst said.
After a 60-mile chase, Mathieson crashed and her vehicle overturned on Manchester Pike in Coffee County.
Bringhurst was assigned to watch over Mathieson while she received treatment at an area hospital.
"She did apologize," Bringhurst said. "(She said) she was sorry for hurting me."
After apologizing for the dangerous incident, Bringhurst said Mathieson told him she had some "stuff in her life going wrong, and it was a bad day to go to jail."
None of the officers received serious injuries.
Mathieson faces charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, evading arrest and vandalism.
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