A man wanted on a felony charge was arrested after fleeing police officers from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in the direction of the Zanesville Police Department.

According to Lieutenant Schaad Johnson of ODNR, an ODNR officer made a traffic stop on a Chevy Impala in the parking lot of Historic Lock and Dam #10 Canal Park, located along the Muskingum River next to the Y-Bridge.

Johnson said the man told the officer he would run out of gas and needed to move from the incline where he was initially stopped, so the officer instructed him to pull into a nearby parking lot on a flat surface. After the officer made contact with the man in the parking lot, the man took off on foot behind the building at 8 Main St. and went into the canal.

“He decided he wanted to run. He had some felony warrants and then he ran along the backside of the Little Barnyard and along the canal, and I’m not sure if he jumped in to try and get away from us or if he slid down the embankment, it was pretty steep right there,” Lieutenant Derek Shilling of ZPD said.

ZPD was called in by ODNR to assist with the scene after the man fled from ODNR property.

“It just all kind of happened real quick,” Shilling said. “We were up there at the lighting of the courthouse and assisting up there and as soon we were shutting down up there this call came out so we all kind of just ran down there real fast.”

According to Shilling, the suspect pulled himself out of the water with assistance from ZPD and was arrested just around the corner from the Zanesville City Jail.

A woman in vehicle was taken into custody, but charges are pending in her case.

It is unclear at the time of publication why the man was stopped by ODNR initially.