A driver and passenger in a car that raced through a Limestone County school zone to elude a deputy trying to make a traffic stop are facing multiple charges, records show.

Limestone County Sheriff’s Investigator Jamie King was on his way to East Limestone High School about 3 p.m. Wednesday to teach a narcotics awareness class to the teaching staff, according to King’s complaint, filed in Limestone County District Court.

He was traveling south on East Limestone Road when he saw a black Buick Century with a driver and three passengers. The vehicle’s tag had a 2018 expiration sticker on it. The tag, which actually was for a white Buick Century, had expired in June 2017. He activated the blue lights in his unmarked black county pickup truck. When the Buick continued through the intersection of East Limestone and Capshaw roads, King also activated his siren to clear the intersection. The driver pulled into the Chevron parking lot as if to stop, then sped away and took the investigator on a 70-mph chase through traffic, including a school zone at a time when school was letting out. During the chase, the Buick driver stopped suddenly, nearly causing King to rear-end him and another vehicle to wreck, he said in the complaint.

After a circuitous journey, the driver stopped the Buick in the middle of Ranch Hill Road and bailed out, running east into the woods. King told his partner, Investigator Anthony Bruno, to secure the two passengers in the Buick while he chased the driver. While chasing the driver, King noticed he had a forearm-length tattoo on one of his arms. The driver got away near a barn just west of Harvest Road.

During questioning, passenger Kaitlan Riley Hale, 22, of Ardmore, Tennessee, said she didn’t know the driver’s name. A male passenger said he was just trying to get a ride to Wal-Mart when the chase began and he did not know the driver’s name, having just met him that day. He told the investigator he kept asking the fleeing driver to just stop and let him out. After viewing Hale’s Facebook account, he determined the driver was Hale’s boyfriend, Derek Hunnell. After viewing his booking photo from a previous arrest, King determined Hunnell had the same tattoo he saw on the man who fled.

Inside the vehicle, investigators found a .22-caliber pistol, two prescription bottles with the labels removed, a Samsung cellphone, two LG cellphones, a cross charm, a wedding ring set with the documentation belonging to Hunnell, a bracelet and a jewelry box containing jewelry.

Hale was charged with attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, illegal possession of prescription medication (two antibiotics), carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and fourth-degree receiving stolen property.

She remained in the Limestone County Jail Thursday with bail set at $3,750 on the misdemeanor charges.

Arrest warrants have been issued for Hunnell on the same charges.

The other man was not charged because his story panned out.