A Peoria teenager was arrested Monday after a burglary in Bloomington turned into a crash that led to a man being hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
According to the Bloomington Police Department, at 7:20 p.m., they responded to a store in the 1600 block of East Empire Street after they received a report of a retail theft in progress. While en route, officers learned that multiple suspects had fled the scene in a vehicle after they stole merchandise from the store.
Right as they got to the scene, police saw the suspect vehicle turning west onto Empire Street and activating their lights to attempt a traffic stop. However, the driver refused to stop and fled “recklessly” from the scene, police said.
Officers did not pursue the vehicle out of concern for public safety, but the vehicle continued on westbound, weaving through traffic before running a red light at the intersection of Empire and Clinton streets.
The vehicle then collided with another vehicle going southbound. The sole occupant of the southbound vehicle was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Four people in the fleeing vehicle were also hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, with a 17-year-old Peoria resident among them. Upon his release, he was arrested on initial charges of reckless driving, aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer, operating a vehicle without a valid drivers’ license and burglary along with several other traffic citations.
Bloomington police and the McLean County Accident Reconstruction Team are investigating the crash and the robbery. Anyone with further information on the incident is asked to contact Detective Logan Fosdick of the Bloomington Police Department at (309) 434-2494 or lfosdick@cityblm.org.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria teenager accused of fleeing police in Bloomington, causing serious crash
Reporting by Zach Roth, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
