A River Falls man is facing felony charges stemming from a high-speed Memorial Day chase through downtown River Falls that resulted in a fiery crash.

Roman A. Eastin, 19, posted a $10,000 bond in Pierce County Circuit Court Dec. 5 on felony vehicle operator flee/elude officer and felony criminal damage to property (over $2,500) charges. If convicted, he faces up to 3.5 years in prison and/or $10,000 in fines.

He is also charged in St. Croix County with felony second-degree recklessly endangering safety and OWIfirst.

According to the police report: At 7:17 p.m. May 30, a UW-River Falls officer (with permission from RFPD) attempted to stop a white Audi after seeing it run a red light at Foster and Main. The speeding vehicle didn’t pull over, going between 50 and 60 mph toward downtown. The officer terminated the pursuit due to the vehicle heading into a heavy pedestrian area, but not before seeing it almost strike a parked vehicle.

The officer continued through town and found the vehicle flipped over in the middle of Paulson Road near Subway, fully engulfed in flames. When other officers arrived on scene, the UWRF officer was tending to the driver in the Subway parking lot. He had major trauma and bleeding to his head, wore no pants or shoes and had road rash on his legs and stomach. Life saving measures were performed on Eastin until EMS arrived to transport him to Regions Hospital.

Multiple witnesses at the scene said the Audi flew over the northwest corner of the Main and Paulson intersection at a high rate of speed. It flipped nine to 10 times, landed in the middle of Paulson Road and burst into flames. An observer found the driver lying in the Subway parking lot breathing out blood. He was transported to Regions Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The investigation revealed Eastin was going about 100 mph when he lost control. The vehicle left the roadway, traveled over the embankment, causing it go airborne into the ditch between Main and Paulson. The vehicle then struck another embankment at the bottom of the ditch, causing it to flip over, again going airborne where it landed on Paulson Road. Eastin was ejected from the vehicle shortly before it struck the Paulson Road embankment. The crash was so violent that the vehicle’s spare tire flew off, hit the railing outside Subway and caused it to break away from the cement.

At 10:51 a.m. May 31, an employee at Kwik Trip South (1200 S. Main St.) reported damage to the car wash believed to be caused by Eastin before the crash. Video surveillance showed Eastin’s Audi pull around to the car wash, striking the curb as it entered the bay, where it collided with the car wash apparatus and knocked it out of alignment. The vehicle then hit the side of the carwash as it exited.

Kwik Trip security footage revealed that Eastin had been with three other people. In the video, Eastin was a passenger in his vehicle, but appeared to argue with the other occupants. He then got into the driver’s seat, went through the car wash building and left heading north on Main Street.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 6 in Pierce County Circuit Court.