Aurora police pursued stolen car for less than a minute before it struck pole, killing 2 inside
A police pursuit of a stolen vehicle in Aurora on Monday ended in a deadly crash. Two people in the stolen vehicle died after crashing into a pole at East Alameda Avenue and South Peoria Street. It's a busy intersection with homes in the area.
One neighbor told CBS Colorado he heard a loud boom when the crash happened.
No homes or other cars were hit in the crash, though there was some minor damage to a fence.
What started as a car theft in Fort Collins on Saturday ended in Aurora on Monday with a violent crash and two lives lost.
Aurora police say they were alerted to a stolen four-door sedan at 11:26 a.m.
"With the help of the real time information center, the vehicle was tracked to the intersection of East Mississippi Avenue and South Peoria Street at 11:32," said Justin Shipley, Aurora Police Department commander.
When officers tried to stop the driver, he took off driving north on Peoria and police chased him.
Police say the driver tried to turn left on Alameda but lost control and struck a pole. Both the driver and a woman in the car with him died on impact.
"The officers were having a hard time keeping safely keeping up with the suspect due to his speed and erratic driving behavior, which resulted in the deadly crash," Shipley said.
The pursuit lasted less than a minute.
Aurora police say it's lucky the car didn't hit anyone else on the busy road.
"We're pretty fortunate. They really did endanger the community with their high speeds on Peoria Street. At one point, they weaved into oncoming lanes of traffic before they came back onto the right side of traffic. And that's when they attempted the left-hand turn, ultimately crashing," Shipley said.
Aurora police updated their chase policy in March of this year, authorizing pursuits of stolen vehicles. Since then, there have been at least 172 total pursuits and 21 pursuit accidents.
Police say there will be a routine internal review of this pursuit.
Police have not yet released the names or ages of the two people who died in the crash.
