A high-speed police chase through north St. Louis yesterday ended with a 19-year-old driver in police custody — and his car flying off I-70 into a nearby embankment.
RFT
photojournalist Zachary Linhares captured the aftermath as a St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer eyed the stolen Hyundai Elantra after it crashed.
Police say they were first alerted by the Real Time Crime Center that a stolen vehicle was traveling southbound on North Grand Boulevard, heading toward Washington Avenue, around 2:30 p.m.
“An officer utilizing an unmarked SUV monitored the stolen Elantra until other SWAT officers could position themselves to deploy spike strips,” the police statement says. “SWAT was unsuccessful in deploying the spike strips at the intersection of Grand and Chouteau, and the Elantra then fled from SWAT officers southbound on Grand, then eastbound onto I-44.”
Police pursued the car on the highway, and Linhares estimates it was going close to 90 mph, with police quite a bit further behind. Police say the driver then seemed to encounter “mechanical issues” that ended with the driver landing the car in an embankment at the intersection of westbound I-70 and Jennings Station Road.