A bystander at a Village of Oak Creek restaurant captured on several videos a of car chase through the Village of Oak Creek on Saturday, Oct. 19, and the subsequent arrest of a man who had led Sedona police officers and Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers on a car chase from Sedona the Village of Oak Creek.
Bystander Tom Watson provided the videos of the car chase and the arrest of the suspect, identified as 28-year-old Daniel Lee Warner. Warner is being charged with criminal damage and felony flight from law enforcement.
According to Sedona police, Warner, a Sedona area transient, reportedly threw a rock through a window of a car at Posse Grounds Park, during Saturday’s Fest of Fall community event, and left the area around 6:02 p.m. Sedona police officers working the Fest of Fall event reported the incident and a police officer located the Warner’s vehicle near Safeway.
When the officer attempted a traffic stop, Warner reportedly drove into oncoming traffic, going the wrong way on State Route 89A at a high rate of speed. The officer did not pursue, according to police.
Another officer relocated Warner’s vehicle eastbound on Cooks Hill and, while following the vehicle without lights and siren on, Warner suddenly drove into the middle lane at a high rate of speed, and the officer chose not to pursue.
DPS was notified and troopers got into a pursuit with the vehicle on State Route 179. Warner entered the Village of Oak Creek and led police on a slow chase in traffic southbound between the Bell Rock Blvd. and Cortez Drive, circling through the roundabouts and heading north to Bell Rock Blvd., when he took the roundabout around south again.
A DPS trooper than deployed stop sticks on Warner’s vehicle as it headed northbound. Other diners at the restaurant are also watching and recording the car chase.
The vehicle came to a rolling stop at the Bell Rock Blvd. roundabout.
On Tom Watson’s video, DPS troopers can be heard shouting “Put your hands up! Get out of the car! Face away from me!”
Warner says something to officers that is inaudible on the video.
“Slowly. Walk back to the sound of my voice,” a trooper shouts.
Warner then turns and the troopers shout “turn around.”
Warner can then be heard saying, “Why don’t you kill me right now?”
“Turn around and walk back” the officer repeats twice. Warner then turns and the DPS trooper deploys a Taser, dropping him to the asphalt.
DPS took Warner into custody and transported him to Yavapai County Detention Center in Camp Verde. Warner allegedly told DPS that he was never going to pull over, according to police reports.
Formal charges are pending.
Warner was arrested in Phoenix on Jan. 8, 2023, for aggravated assault on a police officer and failure to show a driver’s license; had a criminal traffic arrest on June 23, 2023, out of Cottonwood for speeding and no proof of insurance; and an arrest out of Sedona on Oct. 9, 2023 for excessive speeding and failure to appear, with an arrest warrant served on March 25, 2024. He pleaded guilty to the criminal speeding in May and the failure to appear charges were dropped.
