Teenagers lead police on chase through downtown
What started as a call about suspicious vehicles casing the parking lot at Bass Pro Tuesday afternoon turned into a high-speed chase through Downtown streets that left one police officer injured and several cars damaged.
After it was over, the police officer was being treated for non-critical injuries and two teenagers were in custody, Memphis Police Department spokesman Louis Brownlee said.
The incident began a little before 5:30 p.m. when MPD received a call about three vehicles — a gray Acura, a black Kia and a silver Infiniti — at the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid. When officers responded, all three cars fled in different directions, Brownlee said.
Police spotted one of the cars near Riverside and Monroe, but two squad cars apparently ran into each other as they tried to stop that car, Brownlee said. That's where the officer was injured. One squad car had a large dent on the driver's side, the other damage to the front end.
The driver of the gray Acura, which was stolen, tried to flee east on Jefferson, police said, but he lost control near the intersection with Second. The car plowed through newspaper boxes and hit the side of the building on that southeast corner. The two teens, one 17 and the other 19, tried to run but were caught.
A black Ford, which was not involved in the situation, was also damaged there, but police said no one was injured.
The Kia apparently ran into another car as well, but it's uncertain where. The drivers of the Kia and the Infiniti were still at large late Tuesday, police said.
The incident brings back echoes of another high-speed incident that began at Bass Pro and led to the death of a police officer. In June a suspect shot one person in the Bass Pro parking lot and two others in the nearby Pinch District before tearing through Downtown in a stolen silver Camaro. That suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Justin Welch, then crashed into Officer Verdell Smith at Beale and Third, killing him. Welch has been charged in the shootings and Smith's death.