COBURN GORE — A U.S. Border Patrol agent who was injured when his car was rammed by a stolen vehicle Monday night has been treated and released from a hospital, Keith Hoops, public affairs spokesman for the Houlton sector of the Border Patrol, said Thursday.
Hoops declined to give the agent’s name because the case was still under investigation, he said.
The agent and another in a separate vehicle were trying to stop a stolen car from Canada that crossed into Maine on Route 27. When the agent’s vehicle was rammed, another agent fired shots at the car, police previously said.
Agents pursued the car driven by Zachary Wittke, 16, of Ontario as it continued south on Route 27 at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday.
Wittke and his passenger, a 13-year-old girl from Pembroke, Ontario, ditched the car and stole a truck in Kingfield, eventually blowing through roadblocks and spike mats before hitting a guardrail, jumping it and ending up in the Carrabassett River, McCausland said.
Both were injured. The girl was in stable condition at Portland hospital as of Wednesday and had not been charged.
In court Tuesday, Wittke denied state charges of eluding an officer, passing a roadblock, aggravated criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a vehicle. A State Police affidavit filed with the Farmington court said Wittke admitted to being the operator of the car that did not stop at the border crossing and admitted to backing into the border agent’s vehicle.
It is unknown if federal prosecutors will also press charges against the teens.
The Maine Office of the Attorney General is also investigating the case.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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