The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. (AP) - A vehicle being pursued by police sped through an intersection and hit a car broadside Wednesday, killing the man driving the auto, in a crash caught on videotape taken from a television station’s news helicopter.
The chase started in Saukville, went through several counties and reached speeds of 110 mph at some points before the crash and arrest of the 24-year-old Random Lake woman driving a sports utility vehicle, authorities said. The vehicle had gone through “stop sticks,” deflating the right front tire, but continued anyway until the collision.
Saukville Police Chief William Meloy said the incident began shortly before 10 a.m. at Grafton State Bank in his community.
The woman tried to cash a $350 check from a church at the bank’s drive-through area, said Patricia Liedtke, a bank vice president.
A teller was told to contact police when checking if the check was good, and asked the woman to go in the bank and give a thumb print, Liedtke said.
Instead, the woman fled, leading law enforcement officers from several agencies on a chase that covered parts of Highways 33, 60, Cedarburg downtown streets and Interstate 43, authorities said. Officers lost the woman several times during the chase.
In Cedarburg, “the suspect drove in such a manner that the officer couldn’t maintain contact,” said Cedarburg Police Chief Tom Frank. “He was quite a ways behind her at that point.”
The chase ended when she ran a red light and struck the car broadside after getting off I-43 in Milwaukee County, authorities said.
WTMJ-TV of Milwaukee showed the tape of the chase and crash on its news programs later Wednesday.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department identified the victim as Benjamin Fagan, 80, of Whitefish Bay.
Sheriff’s officials said the woman driving the SUV was being treated at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and would be taken to jail once she is released.