CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — A police chase turned deadly Thursday night when a 15-year-old robbery suspect crashed into another car, leaving an innocent driver dead and a passenger severely injured.
Chesterfield County Police Capt. Tim Kehoe said the incident started as an armed robbery in the 6000 block of Cricklewood Drive around 7 p.m. at an apartment complex.
A press release originally stated the incident started when officers were called to the 3700 block of Meadowdale Boulevard.
Police said a man had driven to the apartment complex for an online meet-up to buy tools. Instead, he was pistol-whipped by three young men before one stole his red Dodge truck.
Police said they located the truck and attempted to pull the suspect over, but he refused to stop.
The chase continued on Hopkins Road where police said the suspect crossed the double yellow center line to pass a car and crashed into a silver sedan coming from the opposite direction.
The driver of sedan was pronounced dead at the scene, while the passenger was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The robbery suspect ran from the crash scene on foot, but was taken into custody shortly after.
Police said the teen was charged with felony homicide, robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, grand larceny, vandalism, felony eluding, felony hit and run, no operator's license and disregard traffic signal.
He is being held in juvenile detention.
Capt. Kehoe said the officers in pursuit had their lights and sirens on.
"The safety of the public is first and foremost to us," he explained. "Every pursuit is weighed with regard to the safety of the public. Any one of our officers can terminate a pursuit if they feel there’s a danger to the public or themselves. In this case our officers were a good distance away from the suspect. We had an aviation unit following overhead. Unfortunately, [the suspect] made the decision to pass somebody on a double yellow line on a fairly narrow road. It appears there was a fair amount of traffic in both directions when he made that decision."
Anyone with information about this incident can contact the Chesterfield County Police Department at (804) 748-1251 or Crime Solvers at (804) 748-0660 or submit a tip through the P3 app.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
