Getaway car injures 7 in crash after holdup in Boca Raton

Five suspects arrested after three-car smash on Palmetto

BOCA RATON – As sirens wailed and an eager police dog stood by Monday, 10 police officers, some with guns drawn, ordered armed robbery suspects out of an Acura SUV that had crashed into a palm tree.

One by one, young men who could walk were pulled from the SUV and frisked, as a bystander used a cellphone to record it. The Acura’s front end was crumpled and smoking as it sat at West Palmetto Park Road at Northwest 12th Avenue near Interstate 95.

The scene capped a police chase across the city after gunmen stole a man’s cellphone and wallet

outside an office building near downtown. It ended about 9:50 a.m. with three smashed cars and seven people sent to hospitals.

The wreckage was captured by Theresa Hart, who posted her cellphone video on Facebook. It showed an empty gurney waiting for a patient as firefighters worked to open one of the two other damaged cars.

“I live right across the street from the scene,” said Hart said. “My husband and I heard a loud boom. When we ran outside, everything was happening. We started videoing right away. It was like a scene out of a movie.”

About 9:30 a.m. in a parking lot outside an office building at 980 N. Federal Highway, two men, one armed with a gun, robbed a man, police spokesman Mark Economou said. The suspects ran away and the robbery victim — who wasn’t hurt — lost sight of them.

A witness saw the two suspects get into an Acura SUV that had three other people inside and it left the area, Economou said.

The witness’ description of the Acura was relayed to patrol officers. What happened next took just minutes, Economou said.

Officers first saw the Acura at Yamato Road and North Dixie Highway. It traveled south on North Dixie Highway, east on Spanish River Boulevard and south on State Road A1A, where officers tried to stop it, Economou said.

The SUV sped away and police briefly stopped pursuing it, for safety reasons, Economou said.

The Acura continued south on A1A to Palmetto Park Road and turned west toward the mainland.

Just east of I-95, the Acura was met by an officer who had placed stop sticks in the road that deflated the SUV’s tires.

The Acura, a gray Toyota van and a Ford pickup apparently collided about 9:50 a.m.

Police didn’t release the names of the robbery victim, the people who were inside the Acura and two other crash patients. Economou also didn’t say if anyone had been arrested.

Boca Raton Fire Rescue took the injured — five people in the Acura and one person each from the Toyota and Ford — to Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Assistant Fire Chief Michael LaSalle said.

JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Top photo: The vehicle believed to be the getaway car involved in a robbery and police chase. Above: One of the vehicles that was hit in the three-car crash Monday morning in Boca Raton after a chase that ended on Palmetto Park Road near Interstate 95.

JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER One of the three vehicles damaged Monday morning. The driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was not identified.