CHICAGO — A police chase that began on the far South Side ended in a deadly crash in Calumet Park Friday night.
Chicago police say officers responding to a call about shots fired in the West Pullman neighborhood just before 9 p.m. Friday saw a white Ford SUV speed away from the area at 127th and Halsted.
As it fled west, police say the SUV ran a red light at 127th and Throop and crashed into a red Toyota Corolla. Its driver, 18-year-old Perspectives High School student Tevin Jones-Rogers, was killed instantly. His passenger was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and is expected to survive.
Tevin was an innocent victim of a police pursuit that started in Chicago, a little over a mile away. Surveillance video from the scene shows someone on the driver’s side of the stolen SUV hop out and take off seconds after the crash, even as police pulled up.
Tevin’s mother Tammi Jones and stepfather Elgin Michel were called to the scene minutes after the crash by a friend Tevin had dropped off seconds before the accident.
“My husband walked down there to the scene and I just seen my husband face and I just knew,” Tammi said. “I’m feeling devastated. I’m feeling devastated.”
His family says Tevin ran track and even taught himself to refurbish and revive old gym shoes for friends (see the gallery for more).
Jones and Michel say police shouldn’t have chased the car because “a lot of innocent people get hurt.”
Charges are now pending for one of the five men inside that stolen vehicle. Investigators are still searching for the others.