SUV hits church, injures boy, 4, inside

A woman who fled from Little Rock officers in a stolen car Wednesday crashed the vehicle into a church and injured a child, police said.

Police said that about 9:40 a.m., an officer at West Roosevelt Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive tried to stop a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe that had been reported stolen in the city hours earlier.

The driver of the SUV, identified by police as Chantae Burton, 21, pulled over and let one of two passengers out of the vehicle before fleeing east on West Roosevelt Road, according to police spokesman officer Steve Moore. An officer reportedly chased the vehicle for less than a mile, then lost sight of it around South Spring Street.

The chase came after the Little Rock Police Department recently implemented new vehicle pursuit guidelines — the second change in those guidelines in as many years.

Moore said the officer Wednesday was searching for the vehicle on Interstate 30 when Burton crashed the SUV into House of Bethesda Christian Faith Church at 2616 Springer Blvd. Moore said police were not actively chasing the vehicle when the crash occurred.

The SUV hit a 4-year-old boy inside the church. Moore said the boy, who became stuck under the vehicle, was taken to an area hospital where he underwent surgery for a bone fracture.

Moore said there were no other serious injuries.

Burton and a passenger fled the crash on foot, according to reports. Officers located the two in the 1000 block of East 30th Street, reports said.

Burton was arrested and charged with theft by receiving, fleeing, leaving the scene of an accident with injury, and reckless driving.

The passenger was not charged.

In 2016, Little Rock police banned officers from chasing any driver suspected of a nonviolent, nonfelony offense, with the exception of home burglary suspects. That policy, as Police Chief Kenton Buckner described it, prohibited most chases of stolen vehicles.