A Chicago police sergeant and a young girl were among four people injured by a driver who fled a traffic stop Saturday night on the Near North Side after giving his ID to officers, according to police.
Around 8 p.m., officers stopped the driver of a Red Hyundai Kona near the intersection of Grand Avenue and State Street for failing to signal for a lane change, according to a Chicago Police Department report.
As officers approached the SUV, they spotted an open bottle of alcohol and took the driver’s state identification card, the report states. Officers asked the driver to get out, but instead he took off through a red light, struck the sergeant and swerved into a crowd of people crossing the street.
The sergeant’s legs were injured, according to the report. He was treated at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and released.
The girl, thought to be as young as 5, was rushed to Lurie Children’s Hospital, while an injured 38-year-old woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said. Both were listed in good condition and later released, according to police and the report.
A pedestrian with a shoulder injury refused treatment from paramedics, the report states.
The Hyundai was recovered in the 200 block of West Superior Street, police confirmed. A police source said it was a rental car.
The driver, a 24-year-old Garfield Park man, remains at large, police said. The crime blog CWB Chicago first reported he left his ID with police and the SUV was recovered.
He was most recently charged with driving on a suspended license, operating an uninsured vehicle and possessing cannabis, but those charges were dropped. He also pleaded guilty in 2018 to a misdemeanor count of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and got two years’ probation, according to Cook County court records.
