Police report shows ‘Star Wars’ actor’s desperate flight from SC officers hit 120 mph

WALTERBORO, S.C. – A former child actor who starred in one of the “Star Wars” movie sequels was in an all-out flight from South Carolina law officers that hit speeds of about 120 miles an hour, according to details of Jake Broadbent’s arrest released Tuesday.

Broadbent performed under the name Jake Lloyd when he played a young Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 movie “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.” In the movie Anakin wins a death-defying, high-speed race between anti-gravity “podracer” vehicles.

Broadbent, 26, remained in the Colleton County jail Tuesday after his arrest Wednesday on charges including reckless driving and resisting arrest. Broadbent carried no identification when he was arrested, but deputies established he had a valid driver’s license with an Indianapolis address, said Colleton County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kyle Strickland.

A jail official said he had no information whether Broadbent had a defence attorney. His bond was set at $16,700.

Broadbent first attracted attention driving his Nissan Maxima through South Carolina towns and backroads at 70 miles an hour, but accelerated to about 120 mph as officers flashed blue lights signalling him to stop, an arrest report described.

A dashboard video released by the sheriff’s department shows Broadbent weaving through traffic on Interstate 95. A pickup truck with flashing blue lights pulled alongside the car and tried to force it into a spinout by bumping it onto the interstate’s grassy median.

Broadbent’s car keeps going until a police vehicle again bumps it, pushing it sharply to the right off the interstate, down an incline and through a fence onto a parallel frontage road. Broadbent kept going, the report said.

“The frontage road came to a dead end and the driver continued driving into the woods striking several trees causing extensive damage and finally stopped. The driver exited the vehicle on foot but after a brief struggle with law enforcement, he was apprehended approximately 20 feet from his vehicle,” the arrest report said.

Broadbent suffered small cuts to his face, head and arms after hitting the trees, the report said.