A suspect in the theft of an SUV has been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a Monday morning chase with Tampa Police ended in gunshots.
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The SUV traveled north and stopped behind the First Presbyterian Church of Tampa, located at 4307 Humphrey St., and the suspects got out of the SUV and ran into a wooded area with deep, swampy water.
The incident started about 2:30 a.m., according to Tampa police, when an officer began following a stolen sport utility vehicle near N Nebraska Avenue and E Lake Avenue.
Police say a suspected auto thief was fatally shot after he who fought with an officer and tried to drown a police dog in suburban Tampa.
As the pursuit escalated, the officer broke off, instead alerting the police helicopter of the location and direction of the vehicle.
The suspects were all “fairly young”, police spokesman Steve Hegarty told the Times. Police sent a dog in to apprehend him and he grabbed the dog and tried to push it under water. The officer briefly pursued the SUV, officials say, and then called a police helicopter, which followed the SUV from the air.
The fourth suspect remained in the woods for more than two hours, until police finally apprehended her at around 6.30am.
“Ultimately we had dozens and dozens of officers and a SWAT team; the mayor was out here”, Hegarty said.
A Tampa police officer shot and seriously wounded the suspect, as other officers rounded up three accused accomplices off Humphrey Street near Villa Largo Drive, according to police.
The officer and dog weren’t injured. A total of four suspects – three males and one female, all teenagers – were in the vehicle. The officer who fired his weapon and the suspects have not been identified.
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