Youngster Flees Cops, Crashes and Runs – for No Real Reason

A Milwaukee boy fled from a Wauwatosa police officer, led him and a cavalcade of other officers on a 2.6-mile high-speed chase, and then, just as police were giving up the pursuit, crashed into a fence and ran.

He must have had been deep in some pretty serious business to do that, right?

Nope. He just wasn't old enough to drive and was afraid of the consequences.

At 1:59 p.m. Saturday, a Tosa patrol officer monitoring traffic in the 1800 block of North 60th Street saw a car approaching from the north and accelerating rapidly beyond the speed limit. He clocked it at 45 mph in the 25-mph zone as it passed him, and he pulled out to make the stop, with lights flashing.

The officer said the driver slowed to about 30 mph and it appeared he was going to stop, but suddenly he roared off at high speed, went to the right of four vehicles stopped at Vliet Street, and then turned left in front of them.

The officer hit his siren to warn the drivers and then made the same maneuver. He noted that all four drivers stayed stock-still during the move.

The boy at the wheel overtook and passed several cars on the right as he careered down Vliet at more than 60 mph across Hawley Road, then hit 90 mph as he ran a red light at 47th Street and went through another red at Highland at 70 mph, forcing another driver to slam on his brakes and swerve to avoid what could have been a deadly collision.

High-speed chase, low-speed crash

So it went east, with speeds again reaching 90 mph and a line of Milwaukee police squads now trailing the Wauwatosa officer, all with lights blazing and sirens blaring.

At 24th Street, the Tosa officer was finally advised to abandon the chase for public safety reasons. He shut down his lights and siren and slowed. But ahead, he saw the fleeing car slow, veer left as if to turn on 22nd Street, then veer right and turning south on 21st Street.

The officer cruised up to the corner intending only to give direction to Milwaukee police trying to cut the drive off. Instead, he saw that the boy had lost control on the turn and had piled into a chain-link fence, hanging up his car.

A boy was standing beside the passenger door, and then another emerged from the same door and ran across the street in front of the squad. The Tosa officer radioed the situation and stopped to detain the first boy, who proved to have been a passenger.

Even as the officer was searching the passenger, he looked up to see the driver hot-footing it across Vliet Street with a Milwaukee officer close behind. He reported that the MPD officer caught the boy on the north side of Vliet.

The passenger identified himself and said the car belonged to his mother and that he and his friend had permission to drive it, even though neither was licensed.

The driver told officers in a statement that neither he nor his friend were of age to drive, and that when he saw what he thought was a squad car back on 60th Street in Wauwatosa, he speeded up in fear.

When he saw emergency lights behind him, he said, he really hit the gas because he was afraid of being caught as an unlicensed driver. He also mentioned that they had been running an errand for his friend's mother.

His story checked out. He had no criminal record nor any wants. The passenger's mother confirmed that it was her car and she'd given the boys permission to drive it. She was ticketed for knowingly allowing an unlicensed driver to operate her vehicle.

As for the boy at the wheel – instead of being ticketed only for speeding and operating without a license, he was sent to the Juvenile Detention Center for eluding an officer, a felony.