TWO ARRESTED FOLLOWING HIGH-SPEED CHASE FRIDAY NIGHT

Two people were arrested following a high-speed pursuit in the Morongo Basin Friday night. About 10:35 p.m., Deputy Shane Crowl noticed a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a vehicle violation near Highway 62 and El Reposo in Joshua Tree. When he attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver fled. Five Sheriff’s patrol cars, along with a CHP patrol car and a Sheriff’s helicopter, pursued the Jeep through residential neighborhoods and on Highway 62 in Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, and Twentynine Palms. The report states the driver blew through stop signs and red traffic lights, and drove in oncoming lanes, on sidewalks, and in shopping center parking lots, with speeds reaching 100 miles per hour. After being pursued for 34 minutes over 32 miles, the driver, later identified as Brandon Koenig, 25, of Twentynine Palms, finally pulled into a driveway in the 73800 block of Sunnyslope Drive in Twentynine Palms. Deputies detained Koenig at gunpoint. Brandon Koenig was arrested on suspicion of felony failure to yield, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail with his set bail at $100,000, and on a $250,000 warrant for choking his girlfriend in Yucca Valley in April. The passenger in the Jeep was released at the scene. After the pursuit, Chelsea Sentz, 33, of Yucca Valley, called the Sheriff’s Department and made an official report stating she was the owner of the Jeep and that it had been stolen. Deputies determined that Sentz was not the owner of the Jeep, but rather, was the daughter of the owner, and had given Koenig permission to drive the Jeep. Sentz had gotten out of the Jeep at the Circle K store in Joshua Tree just before the pursuit began. Chelsea Sentz was arrested for investigation of perjury, and on a $50,000 warrant for drug charges, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, with her bail set at $50,000.