A driver was apprehended after crashing into two police cars while trying to escape a traffic stop in Madison. | Rhonda Jenkins/Pixabay
A driver was apprehended after crashing into two police cars while trying to escape a traffic stop in Madison. | Rhonda Jenkins/Pixabay
A driver allegedly fleeing from a traffic stop caused a midday multivehicle crash on the Beltline that stalled traffic for hours.
WMTV reports the crash involved a Madison Police Department cruiser and a Wisconsin State Patrol cruiser, with a Wisconsin Department of Transportation report adding that a Wisconsin State Patrol inspector was attempting to stop a vehicle going westbound on the Beltline near Monona Drive for allegedly speeding and driving in the Flex Lane while it was closed.
After the suspect vehicle collided with the rear-driver-side of the Madison PD cruiser then hit the State Patrol vehicle, the driver ran off before attempting to carjack a taxi driver parked at a business near the crash; a WKOW report said. The officers from both police vehicles were taken to the hospital as a precaution and were reported to have suffered only minor injuries.
“The squad car came around behind him; he noticed the squad car, and the chase began,” witness Jim Haack told WMTV, adding that he was traveling on the Beltline when the car sped past him. “I could see what I thought he was going to do before he started to speed up; I actually gave him enough room to get around me without taking my front end off.”
Authorities have now tentatively charged 24-year-old Maurice Jenkins with as many as 10 charges, including two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, hit-and-run causing injury and felon in possession of a firearm. Jenkins was taken into custody after attempting to flee on foot across the Beltline.
In all, three suspects were apprehended and taken into custody.
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