WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, May 25, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A teen-aged driver in a stolen car drew the attention of police, then proceeded to smash into two police cars and three houses, killing a man in the process, according to West Valley City PD.
“This person made a bad decision and this person killed someone,” West Valley City Police spokeswoman Roxanne Vainuku said Thursday night in briefing reporters on the scene.
Vainuku stressed there was no police pursuit in the neighborhood near 31st South and Beaver Street. She did say officers in an unmarked police car were following from a distance, monitoring the teens.
At one point the suspect vehicle even stopped, Vainuku said, and the 15-year-old driver and two passengers, 17-year-old male, and a 16-year-old female, got out, But the driver got back in the vehicle as police approached and drove off.
Other officers had laid down spike strips in his path but he nonetheless crashed through several yards, striking two police cars and three houses, and taking out the gas meter of one, Vainuku said, before hitting and killing a 24-year-old man who was standing in front of one of the houses.
The 15-year-old driver was taken to a hospital for minor injuries. He apparently laid on the ground next to the eventually disabled vehicle and surrendered to police. The car had been reported stolen out of Salt Lake City.
Five homes were evacuated because of the leaking gas line and the front room of one home was essentially torn open, leaving it uninhabitable.
