Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004061128
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Six police cars joined in the chase that ended with the 16-year-old driver losing control and smashing into a fire hydrant. The driver and his teen-age passenger were not seriously hurt.
Roanoke police said the chase started at 9:55 p.m. Thursday when a Roanoke patrol officer spotted a 1985 compact car with a tail light out at Sixth Street and Harrison Avenue Northwest.
When the officer tried to stop the compact car, the driver ran two lights and took off west on Shenandoah Avenue, police said.
Salem police officers joined the chase when the car entered their city. A Salem officer tried to block the road, but moved his cruiser out of the way when he saw that the car was not going to stop, Roanoke police said.
The driver tried to make a left turn off the Boulevard onto Pearl Street, but blew out a tire, Salem police Lt. J.R. Bryant said. The car struck a fire hydrant, knocking it over to a 45-degree angle.
The driver got out, dived over the hood of a police car and ran, Roanoke police said.
Two Roanoke officers chased him and caught him about a block and a half away, Roanoke police said.
As a crowd of about 30 nearby residents gathered, the passenger was handcuffed and placed facedown in the grass next to the car.
The driver, of Downing Street in Northwest Roanoke, was charged with possession of crack, failure to stop for police and other traffic offenses.
Charges are pending in Salem against the two teen-agers, Bryant said.
The teen-agers were turned over to Roanoke police, and the car was taken to the Roanoke impound lot, Bryant said. The driver was taken to Coyner Springs juvenile detention home.
Officers took a pair of large home stereo speakers out of the hatchback of the compact car and put them into a Roanoke patrol car.
Roanoke police said they tracked down the owner of the compact car, who said he had given another man permission to use the car. The teen-age driver said the man who had borrowed the car had given him permission to use it, police said.
Staff writers Victoria Ratcliff and Laurence Hammack contributed information to this story.
by CNB