Driver facing charges after burglary, crash at McMinnville airport

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A driver is facing multiples charges after police say he crashed into and attempted to steal from a McMinnville airport building early Saturday afternoon.

Just after 12:30 p.m., officers responded to the 4000 block of Three Mile Lane, near the McMinnville Municipal Airport, on reports that a vehicle had crashed into a building.

As police were arriving at the scene, a woman and a child who had both been in the crashed SUV were given a ride by a witness to a nearby Oregon State Police office. Neither were injured, officials said.

The driver, identified as 26-year-old Jamar Bell, had fled the area on foot after the crash.

Another witness soon told police a man was seen breaking into the second story of a building at the airport and stealing keys.

An officer then found Bell in the building’s stairway and the stolen keys in his pocket.

Further investigation found Bell had driven the SUV from the Evergreen Aviation Museum through a field, then narrowly between two trees at the edge of the field, crashed through a chain link fence, through and over a pile of lumber, then into another chain link fence before crashing into the airport building, police said.

Bell was taken into custody and booked into the Yamhill County Jail on charges of reckless driving, recklessly endangering another person (two counts), failure to performer duties of a driver, as well as second-degree burglary.