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Minivan mom still on loose after eluding police

Posted at 8:11 PM, May 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-11 20:11:48-04

SPRINGDALE, Ohio - A Tri-State mom is still on the run a week after leading several police cruisers on a wild chase in her minivan with her child in the backseat.

The officer who tried to stop Erica Barreiro-Rapp before she took off thinks she planned her escape - driving over curbs, running red lights and even driving on people lawns to avoid the law.

"She was ready to do what she did," said Springdale Lt. Rick Neumann.

Neumann says it all started in Springdale Mayors Court. He was the court officer that day. Barreiro-Rapp was with a lawyer answering to petty theft charges. But when she thought everything was squared away, Neumann stopped her.

"I said to her, 'You know, you have two other warrants out for your arrest ... two other jurisdictions, and we need to find out what they want to do with this,'" he said Wednesday.

He turned his back and she was gone. She told her lawyer she was going to get her phone to call for someone to care for her son if she had to go to jail.

Neumann ran after her into the parking lot.

"I'm getting right up to her and she hops in and she locks the door and I start ordering, 'Ma'am, you need to open the door, you need to open the window, and she says, "I can't find  the keys." I called a unit to come down because she has a car and I don't have a car."

It turned out that Barreiro-Rapp has felony warrants in Kentucky for heroin possession, tampering with evidence and carrying a concealed weapon, and other warrants in Butler County.

At least four squad cars chased her. At one point, it looked like they had her boxed in on a residential street, but she drove over several front yards to escape, leaving tire tracks in the grass.

Watch the dashcam video below:

 

 

"You can see it right now, too, but at the time it was really ugly," said one of the angry homeowners, Zaal Matcharashvih.

"Unacceptable. It's disappointing. It's my property and I don't expect someone to go on it without my permission."

Police said they called off the chase at a later point – after she sped through a red light at a busy intersection - for the safety of the child.

At her home in Monroe, the porch light was on and the windows were covered Wednesday. No sign of anyone there.

Police are now asking for your help. They asking anyone with information about her to call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.

"I'd hate for her to be on the run and somebody to get hurt," said Neumann.