Seven Spokane police officers, police dog hurt in high-speed crash with suspects' car
Seven police officers and a police dog in Spokane, Washington, were hospitalized Friday for injuries they got when their vehicles collided with a suspect vehicle during a high-speed car chase.
All those involved in the crash, including three suspects who were arrested, are expected to recover from their injuries, police said.
A SWAT team and K-9 officer had finished looking for a suspect with a warrant on Friday at 1 p.m. when the police dog saw a suspect vehicle from a recent drive-by shooting, according to a report posted by Spokane Police Department liaison officer Sgt. Teresa Fuller.
The K9 officer attempted to stop the vehicle, but the vehicle fled, and – due to the severity of the original crime – the officers began to pursue it, police said.
During the chase, an assisting armored police vehicle crashed into the suspect vehicle at the intersection of Oak and Carlisle streets in a west-central Spokane residential neighborhood. The vehicle with the K-9 officer pursuing the suspect car then crashed into the suspect car, too, police said.
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High-speed chase narrowly hurt civilian, only lasted 2 minutes
The crash could have been worse, as a civilian car pulled over when it saw the armored vehicle approaching with lights and sirens on, narrowly escaping the collision, police said.
Three suspects were detained and transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The police officers were also transported to the hospital after securing the safety of the crime scene, while the K-9 officer was taken to a local veterinarian, police said.
Officers were being treated for "a variety of different injuries related to the crash," Justin Lundgren, interim police chief of the Spokane Police Department, said in a press conference after the incident and posted on YouTube by Spokane TV affiliate station KREM.
The pursuit lasted about two minutes and achieved "a high rate of speed, particularly right before the collision took place," said Lundgren, who declined to say which drive-by shooting incident the suspects were arrested for.
“This particular incident highlights the challenges our patrol officers are up against every day with the number of shootings they investigate and the behavior of the suspects, not only while committing these violent crimes, but the great lengths they’ll go to escape," Lundgren said in a statement. "It puts the community at risk.”
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