Two people were killed and police are searching for a driver after a deadly hit-and-run crash on Chicago's South Side early Thursday.
The crash took place at around 1:04 a.m. in the 7100 block of South State Street, near the Dan Ryan Expressway, in the city's Park Manor neighborhood, according to police.
Authorities said a white Ford Fusion was traveling northbound, exiting the expressway ramp onto State Street at a high rate of speed, when it collided in the intersection with an SUV traveling eastbound on 71st Street.
Jerome Clopton, the 35-year-old man driving the SUV and James Moore, his 42-year-old male passenger, were both taken to the University of Chicago Hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The driver of the Ford fled the scene, leaving his car behind, officials said. One witness who was at the BP gas station next to where it happened said that an Illinois State Trooper was getting off the Dan Ryan at the same time of the crash and immediately put on his lights.
That's when the suspect took off, the witness said, hopping a fence to get away.
"I heard a big noise," the cashier at the gas station said. "Immediately we saw that accident happened near our lot, very close to the pump 4. Then I saw immediately a police car is coming behind it."
The crime scene stretched for several blocks along State Street, with both cars involved still in place for at least four hours after the crash.
No one is in custody in connection with the crash, as authorities continue to investigate.
