1 person killed in Colorado car crash, 2 suspects hospitalized, police say

A driver is dead and two people are in custody while being treated at a hospital after a crash that shut down all lanes of Blackhawk Street and Iliff Avenue in Aurora.

Aurora police say the crash happened just after 2 p.m. The deceased driver was the only person in their car and was pronounced dead at the scene after the car was split in two from the crash. The driver and a passenger of another car were detained at the scene of the crash and taken to a hospital.

The extent of their injuries wasn't known, but police officials believed they were just taken to the hospital as a precaution.

An Aurora police spokesman said that an APD motorcycle officer was doing speed enforcement on northbound Interstate 225 near East Yale Avenue, clocked a driver who was speeding, and attempted a traffic stop. The driver didn't stop, however; they continued on I-225 until exiting at Iliff just before the crash. The officer wasn't injured, APD said.

Video footage taken by a person nearby shows the APD motorcycle officer handcuffing two people near the while car.

"I work in automotive salvage and to see a car in pieces like that without someone actually cutting it- the momentum and activity that has to happen for it to be in pieces has to be pretty significant," Jen Wilson, a neighbor who was at home at the time of the crash, told CBS News Colorado.

"It's heartbreaking," she continued. "And then you think of all the people that may have been there when this was all happening, because this intersection is a busy intersection."

Aurora Police Lt. Chris Amsler, commanding officer of the department's traffic unit, said the driver of the white car was going 84 mph in a 65 mph zone. He allegedly drove on the left shoulder to try to evade the motorcycle officer before crossing over the entire highway to get off at Iliff Avenue. He then ran the red light, colliding with a red Honda Accord that was turning left from Blackhawk Street onto westbound Iliff Avenue.

Two other vehicles at the scene were struck as a result of the crash, according to Amsler.

The identity of the suspects has not yet been revealed and Amsler said detectives are working to determine why they fled, but the driver will, at a minimum, face charges of vehicular homicide. As of Thursday afternoon, there was no sign of intoxication on the driver's part, but that could change.

"Unfortunately, this driver and what he did today took the life of a very young man," Amsler said. "There are consequences to your actions."

The victim also hasn't been identified, but Amsler estimated that he was in his 20s.

Police are urging people to avoid the area and use East Jewell Avenue or East Yale Avenue as alternate east-west routes.

There was no estimated time given for the reopening of those roads.