ST. LOUIS, Mo. --A St. Louis police officer and two occupants of another vehicle were injured Tuesday night in a collision just east of midtown. Police said the officer was responding to a call for aid and the other automobile had been pursued moments earlier -- but not for the incident the officer was heading toward.
Lt. Col. Alfred Adkins explained the confusing sequence of events at Washington and Compton avenues, the location of the crash about 9:20 p.m. He said one of three occupants of the westbound vehicle fled the scene, and officers found a pistol inside the demolished car.
Adkins said the car had been seen by another officer a few minutes earlier near Natural Bridge and north Florissant avenues. That officer followed the car but broke off when yet another officer called for assistance at Evans and Whittier avenues, where a shot might have been fired.
Adkins said the officer involved in the accident was northbound on Compton heading toward the same incident on Evans when his patrol car collided with the other car.
The patrol car ended up on the sidewalk at the northwest corner and the other car was spun around and smashed rear first into a building. Firefighters assisted a man and a woman, ages unknown, from the vehicle, and transported them and the officer to hospitals. All were in serious condition, Adkins said.
Adkins said a second male in the car fled west on foot.
Copyright 2013 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
