By Grace Wong
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Dashcam videos from a high-speed police chase last summer show an explosive collision between a Chicago police SUV and a car that ended with two suspects dead and four officers injured.
“Oh sh–! Chicago, give me Fire!” an officer yells into his radio as he pulls up to the scene at 124th Street and Union Avenue in West Pullman around 11 a.m. July 1. “CPD just got into a 10-50 with him! Get me Fire out here!” A 10-50 is a traffic accident.
The officer swears and shouts, “Are you guys all right? Get me Fire out here! I got three of these guys I think! CPD is injured, but they're alive!”
In a dashcam video from another police car, two officers stumble out of the crashed SUV. One of them puts his head to the ground and rolls onto his back, his right hand clutching his forehead. The other lays on his back near the car and tries to sit up before lying down again.
At least one suspect is ordered onto the ground and another is seen being handcuffed in the videos, which were released by the Independent Police Review Authority. Two other suspects in the car were killed.
The chase began on the off-ramp of Interstate 57 near 127th Street after a robbery at a business in Tinley Park, police said.
The first video is shot from a state police car and shows a tan car stopped on an off-ramp of Interstate 57 near 127th Street. A trooper repeatedly yells, “Step out! Step out! Step out!” But the car makes a U-turn and speeds off through a motel parking lot.
The chase continues through at least one red light, down an alley, across a vacant lot (barely missing a parked van) and then down a one-way street where it collides with the police SUV in a burst of smoke and dust.
The car flips over and the SUV spins around. Both come to rest against a brick home on the corner of 124th Street and Union Avenue. A tire flies across the road.
Two suspects died in the crash. They were identified as Jimmy Malone, 26, and Ronald Arrington, 22, of the 12400 block of South Union Avenue. Two other suspects were arrested and charged with robbery: Michael Cokes, 26, of Alsip and Isiah Stevenson, 24, of Matteson.
On Tuesday, Cokes and Stevenson both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft charges, according to the Will County Clerk's website.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service