Update: Video has emerged of the crash.
Chicago — A 22-year-old man is dead after he pulled a U-turn while trying to flee from a Chicago police traffic stop and was struck by an on-coming car in the South Loop on Sunday evening, according to CPD. Six other people were taken to hospitals, including two teenagers.
Sources familiar with the investigation said that Chicago police officers were also tailing the vehicle that struck the fleeing car, but they had not yet tried to pull it over.
It happened around 8 p.m. in the 1400 block of South Michigan Avenue. Footage captured seconds after the crash from a nearby high-rise shows Chicago police officers walking through the wreckage and arresting a man as he exits the driver’s seat of an SUV.
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According to a Chicago police media statement, officers were walking up to a Hyundai Sonata during a traffic stop when the car’s driver “made a sudden U-Turn as officers approached on foot, striking two vehicles.”
The Hyundai’s driver died. His two passengers, an 18-year-old woman, and a 21-year-old man, were taken in fair condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Stroger Hospitals, respectively.
CPD’s statement said an 18-year-old man driving an Infiniti involved in the crash was also taken to Stroger in fair condition. A 32-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl, and a 14-year-old boy in a Honda SUV were also taken to Stroger in fair condition, the statement said.
Officers also found ammunition and ammunition magazines in the Hyundai’s wreckage, one source said. It was not yet known if weapons were also found.
The police statement offered no further details about the crash. However, sources said the driver of the Infiniti sped away from officers who pulled up behind him on Roosevelt Road moments before the collision. Chicago police officers were following the Infiniti without their emergency lights activated when it collided with the Hyundai that was in the middle of a U-turn, according to the sources, who cited Chicago police video.
Chicago police have not announced any charges. The Major Accident Investigations Unit is handling the case. The sources who spoke with CWBChicago said the department was also conducting an intense investigation of the crash and the events leading up to it.