COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah, Oct. 12, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A female suspect hit a male juvenile pedestrian during a police chase in Cottonwood Heights on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Sgt. Ryan Shosted, of the Cottonwood Heights Police Department, told Gephardt Daily officers responded to a fraud in progress at a Wells Fargo bank near 1900 East and Fort Union Blvd at approximately 4 p.m.
When officers got to the bank, they found a man and a woman getting into a car. The man ran on foot, but the woman drove off in the car, after ramming an officer’s patrol truck.
“As soon as one of the officers arrived, a suspect who was in a vehicle related to the fraud immediately rammed one of our officers and took off,” Shosted said.
“Our officers began to pursue that car until it began to drive too recklessly, so the officers backed off, hoping that action would actually slow the suspect down,” he added. “They lost sight of the suspect, received information and checked the area neighborhoods locally to see if they could see the car.”
They found the suspect in the car, and she again fled from officers. The officers again let the vehicle get some distance and get away from them. After the officers lost sight of the suspect vehicle, it was involved in an accident with a male juvenile pedestrian and another vehicle.
The pedestrian was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition. It appears he is going to be OK, Shosted said. The two people in the vehicle the suspect hit — an adult and a child — were transported to the hospital and are in stable condition.
“The suspect was in the vehicle and did receive some pretty significant injuries and is being taken care of by medical staff, and then will obviously be facing significant criminal charges,” Shosted said.
He added that officials were just relieved the injuries were not more severe.
“It could’ve been a lot worse because of one person’s inability to follow the law, and poor choices,” Shosted said.
One of the Cottonwood Heights police trucks sustained front-end bumper damage when the suspect rammed it.
The Unified Police Department and Unified Fire Authority also assisted with the incident.
The male suspect is still at large, but is not considered dangerous, Shosted said. Neither suspect’s identity was disclosed.
The UPD will investigate the crash, and Cottonwood Heights Police will investigate the fraud case, Shosted said.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
