BELOIT — A Darlington man was arrested on a fifth-offense charge of intoxicated driving after Beloit police say he drove his truck into a downtown holiday parade Thursday, Nov. 29.

Curtis L. Metz, 38, also faces charges of knowingly fleeing an officer, obstructing police, reckless driving and driving with a revoked license.

His passenger, 52-year-old Aaron L. Frayer, Beloit, was arrested on two felony bench warrants out of Green County for bail jumping and failure to pay child support.

Metz reportedly drove past a squad vehicle with illuminated lights and through the parade barrier.

“One of our officers used his hands to hit the front of the suspect’s truck to get him to stop,” according to Sarah Millard, director of strategic communications for the City of Beloit. But once stopped, Metz “refused to follow orders or speak with officers and instead took off westbound into the parade route.”

Metz was not pursued into the route, and officers only followed him in an attempt to steer the truck out of the dangerous circumstances and away from parade spectators, Millard noted.

Once the truck left the parade route, police tried to stop it using stop sticks but it continued into South Beloit and eventually stopped between two trees in a cornfield near Prairie and Rockton Roads in Winnebago County, Illinois.

No injuries were reported from the incident.

Metz, who has previously lived in Juda and Monroe, was sentenced to two years on probation and 60 days in jail in 2014 in Green County after pleading guilty to his fourth-offense OWI and a related charge of fleeing an officer. The case stems from an attempted traffic stop by Green County deputies in 2012. Court records indicate Metz fled across the state line into Illinois and was apprehended in Stephenson County.