Chicago man charged after chase through La Crosse

He wants to be called Jerry Smith, Jr., not Jerry Berry.

Either way, the 35-year-old Chicago native is now formally charged in La Crosse County with leading police on a chase and endangering two passengers.

Police said Smith fled when officers tried to arrest him at the West Avenue Walgreens for allegedly using a forged drug prescription.

The chase ended after Smith’s car hit a house and two parked cars.

Two other people in his car had to be freed by cutting off the vehicle’s roof.

The suspect told Judge Gloria Doyle that he was known, and listed in criminal files, as Jerry Berry until recently changing his name to Smith.