A vehicle struck and dragged a police officer in west suburban Elmhurst Thursday evening before fleeing the scene and prompting a police chase that ended in a crash in Chicago's South Side Fuller Park neighborhood.
Elmhurst police responded to the Dominicks store, at 215 S. Rte. 83, shortly before 8 p.m. on a call of retail theft. The alleged robber hopped into his towncar, struck and briefly dragged a police officer then fled the scene.
Several squads joined in the pursuit, which went roughly 26 miles along the Eisenhower Expressway. It ended nearly 40 minutes later in a crash with another vehicle at the off-ramp of the Dan Ryan Expressway at 51st and Wells.
"It kind of put the cars in a disarray because he was coming at a high rate of speed and the police were coming in between cars and weaving in and out of cars so it kind of made the pedestrians not know whether to veer to the left or the right," one witness said at the scene.
Two women in a vehicle at the off-ramp were injured. They were listed in serious-to-critical condition, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado. One was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County and the was taken to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, he said.
The officer that was struck in Elmhurst was taken to Elmhurst Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
