BREMERTON – A 23-year-old man with multiple outstanding warrants was arrested by Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies Friday after a harrowing pursuit.

Nicholas D. Thompson of Bremerton is facing felony charges for eluding a police vehicle and possessing a controlled substance after police say they found him with methamphetamine following a car chase.

According to a certificate of probable cause prepared by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, around 12:55 a.m. a KCSO officer observed a vehicle traveling westbound on Highway 16 in Gorst that did not have its headlights on and “appeared to be traveling at a high rate of speed.”

The vehicle did not stop when the officer turned on his lights, nor when the officer turned on his siren, he wrote in the court filing.

“The vehicle was not stopping or slowing down. It still had no lights on. The roadway was wet,” the officer wrote.

A chase ensued on Highway 3 with speeds over 70 mph, the officer wrote. The suspect vehicle exited onto Loxie Eagans Blvd., and reportedly drove into oncoming traffic, then ran a red light at National Ave., according to police.

The vehicle tried to turn on National Ave., the officer wrote, but lost control and “crashed into a snow bank.”

The officer got out of his police car and pointed his firearm in the direction of the driver, shouting instructions that he not follow, according to the officer. The driver allegedly backed up and tried to exit the snow bank, but was unable to.

The deputy jumped back into his car and “tried to pin the back of the vehicle into the bank” with push bars. Additional officers arrived to help pin the suspect vehicle, according to the filing.

“All of us had our guns out and flashlights shining on the car,” the officer wrote.

The driver remained in the car and did not follow instructions nor show his hands, police said. An officer proceeded to break a window and “got a hold of [the suspect’s] hands.”

“We hauled [the suspect] out through the drivers window,” the officer wrote.

Thompson told police he had swallowed heroin while he was in the car, according to the filing, and was taken to Harrison Medical Center before being taken to jail.

Officers were advised that Thompson had two oustanding warrants, one for vehicle theft with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, and one from the Department of Corrections.

Thompson has a prior conviction for vehicle theft for which he was sentenced to 22 months in prison on December 7, 2016. He has multiple other convictions for theft, the possession of controlled substances and petty crimes dating to 2007.

Upon searching the suspect police said they found a “small baggie with a white substance” that appeared to be methamphetamine.

Thompson was charged with the possession of a controlled substance and attempting to elude a police vehicle, both class C felonies. Bail was set at $50,000.