The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office had their helicopter out for a vehicle pursuit Wednesday which may have escalated because they pulled the helicopter out, and thankfully no one appears to have been seriously hurt.

It remains unclear whether the suspect was wanted for any particular crime, or if this was simply a traffic stop that turned chaotic. But a white SUV allegedly "failed to yield" after a CHP officer attempted to pull the vehicle over on Highway 101 in Santa Rosa, and then took off at high speeds.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Facebook page has a video of the incident — and we know by now that when they pull the Henry 1 (H1) helicopter out, they like to show county residents that it's being put to good use, via Facebook.

The video, taken from the helicopter, shows the harrowing chase through the heart of Santa Rosa. At one point, the suspect vehicle gets stuck at a traffic light at Brush Creek Road and Fountaingrove Parkway, and a law enforcement vehicle attempted to box it in. But the suspect took off again from there, speeding through town, sometimes on the shoulder of the road, at speeds around 60 miles per hour.

The SUV can then be seen heading onto Highway 12 (Sonoma Highway) toward Oakmont and Kenwood, and fairly quickly, the driver appears to lose control, and the SUV goes tumbling into a vineyard by the side of the highway, near the 8200 block.

The suspect can then be seen getting out of the vehicle and standing in the vineyard with his hands up, while a K9 stands ready to chase him if he runs.

The suspect was reportedly taken into custody by Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies and the Santa Rosa Police Department, but again, it remains unclear what he was initially suspected of, before fleeing from CHP.

"Given the suspect’s dangerous and unpredictable driving, stopping him was critical," the Sheriff's Office says, by way of justification for the pursuit. "Air support and teamwork were key to bringing the incident to a safe conclusion."

This chase now enters the public debate about when such pursuits are necessary, and when they actually endanger the public further. And in this case, it may have been the presence of the helicopter itself — which is supposed to relieve officers in vehicles from maintaining the chase in dangerous circumstances — that prompted the suspect to run, accordin to the sheriff's office description.

A 2022 case in Oakland involving two rookie police officers who conducted a "ghost chase," against department policy and without their lights or sirens on, ended with the suspect vehicle causing an innocent bystander's death. A wrongful death suit in that case continues to raise legal questions about when police officers can be held liable for creating dangerous situations that end in deaths.