Police on Monday were searching for a 37-year-old Hermiston man after he allegedly led Umatilla Police on a high-speed chase on Highway 730, over the Columbia River and into Washington.

Umatilla Police Officer Gary Knight attempted to stop David Gilbert Gomez a little after 7 a.m. Sunday after hearing Gomez spin his tires twice on Willamette Street onto Highway 730. Gomez did not stop and drove up to 70 miles per hour, running two stop signs on Highway 395, making turns onto other roads and even went off the road to get around a road block and onto Interstate 82, Knight said.

Even with both passenger-side tires blown, Gomez sped across the bridge between Oregon and Washington, and then off-road again into the brush near Plymouth, Wash. Knight apparently had lost sight of Gomez at one point.

The red Jeep was found in a swampy area southwest of Interstate 82, but Gomez was nowhere to be found. A K-9 unit from Benton County tracked Gomez to ATV tracks and lost the trail from there, said Karen Holt, spokesperson for the Umatilla Police Department.

Holt said the Jeep was not reported as stolen initially because the owner did not want Gomez to get into trouble. She has since filed a stolen vehicle report, Holt said.

At this point, the feeling is that ATV was stolen as well, Holt said, but that information has not been verified.