WINONA, Minn. — The car had no taillights, so the sheriff’s deputy tried to make a traffic stop. He driver took off like a bat out of hell. This was about 12:15 a.m. at the U.S. Highway 61 roundabout at Mankato Avenue. The driver headed into town and squealed onto Riverbend Road and into the Walmart parking lot. Speeds were up to 80 mph, the deputy said. The driver slammed into a stray Walmart shopping cart as he zoomed onto Frontenac Drive, then back to Mankato, to Garvin Heights Road, vto Homer Road and other streets in between. Then he was out of town on State Highway 43. At Debi Lei Drive, he turned into one of the first driveways and stopped. Inside the deputy found Gabriel John Penic, age 22. His eyes were bloodshot, the lids droopy, and he smelled drunk, the deputy said. Penic declined to attempt roadside sobriety exercises. At jail he declined d blood-alcohol testing.
Penic. Deputies wrote him up for drunken driving, fleeing police, and refusing tests for alchol in his system. Oh, yes, he was charged also for the taillight violation.